Alejandro Betancourt Lopez Appoints Pedro Beneyto Hawkers CEO

The Hawkers sun shades firm has lately reshuffled its senior administration staff, together with the appointment of Pedro Beneyto as the brand new CEO. Beneyto has beforehand labored for the eyewear firm Alain Afflelou and jewellery designer Suarez.
Beneyto started working for Hawkers in Could 2022, and his major process as CEO will probably be to steer the agency’s technique for international development for the foreseeable future. Hawkers’ present growth plans are primarily based on three areas: worldwide growth, its franchise system, and the event of the agency’s retail community.
“Hawkers is a really highly effective model that, till now, has centered its exercise on promoting sun shades,” Beneyto mentioned. “We’ve many superb aims, and one in every of them is to maneuver our eyewear providing to prescription eyeglasses. We’ve a few methods we are able to obtain this. We are able to both go by the use of franchising or via our personal community of opticians.”
The corporate is at present investing closely in overseas markets, which already account for almost all of its on-line gross sales. Hawkers’ web site is now obtainable in over 80 nations, and it operates over 70 shops in Spain, Italy, and Portugal.
The agency’s flagship product has been sun shades because it was launched, nevertheless it lately launched a line of eyeglasses known as Hawkers Eyewear. This product line is already carried by 15 opticians in Portugal and Spain.
Alejandro Betancourt Lopez: ‘We Plan to Broaden’
Hawkers was based in 2013 as an internet sun shades reseller. Along with Hawkers itself, the corporate has many manufacturers of eyewear and different trend equipment, together with Battleboro, Miss Hamptons, Northweek, and Wolfnoir.
Hawkers additionally acquired Loopas, a contact lens retailer, in 2020 to help the corporate’s growth into prescription eyewear. In 2022, Hawkers opened its first manufacturing unit, which is in Elche, Spain. This transfer is a part of the corporate’s dedication to “made in Spain” manufacturing.
This has been Betancourt Lopez’s recreation plan all alongside. He defined that the corporate, which was based after a $300 funding in 2013, is value $60 million in 2021. He talked about that though the corporate is making large progress in Spain, its objective is to broaden to extra markets in different nations.
Hawkers even have the plan to kind extra partnerships with different manufacturers for sneakers, clothes, and jewellery. This might be a mutual profit for each the corporate and its companions – each of them will probably be promoting extra merchandise because of the partnership.
He additionally acknowledged that the corporate additionally has another superb plans for the long run, together with making extra environmentally pleasant sun shades with out sacrificing trend.
Hawkers’ sun shades are designed for each power and luxury. The frames are constructed of stainless-steel with a masking of cellulose acetate, which is sturdy and unhazardous. This design is proving extremely in style, as extra folks present a desire for environmentally pleasant merchandise.
Its H2O line of six merchandise additionally makes use of recycled plastic, together with waste faraway from the oceans. As well as, the packaging for these newest designs consists of biodegradable or sustainable supplies, resembling recycled paper and plastic.
Alejandro Betancourt Lopez’s Function
Betancourt Lopez’s funding in Hawkers was instrumental within the startup’s fast development into a serious participant within the eyewear market. Betancourt Lopez attributes this success to the best mixture of instruments, timing, folks, and help, saying, “If that’s within the equation, I believe you may successfully make one thing occur and be an excellent chief. I consider in good management, but additionally I consider in folks. If you happen to don’t have the best staff, you’ll not get wherever.”
Betancourt Lopez added that he noticed nice potential in Hawkers in 2016, prompting him to implement his advertising imaginative and prescient by making nice use of social media. This technique catapulted the corporate to the highest of its sector, and Betancourt Lopez grew to become referred to as a disrupter within the sun shades market.
Previous to Betancourt Lopez’s involvement, Hawkers’ finances was an essential consideration for purchasing sun shades. Shoppers might simply purchase an affordable pair in lots of bodily retailers resembling comfort and grocery shops. They could lose or break them inside a brief time frame, however the low value meant that it wasn’t an excellent loss.
However, costly sun shades have been additionally available from upscale boutiques specializing in designer eyewear. These sun shades might final for years if the proprietor was cautious, however the monetary loss may very well be important in the event that they have been misplaced or broken.
With Hawkers, shoppers can buy a sturdy, inexpensive pair of sun shades simply by swiping or clicking on a social media advert. This method to creating purchases is particularly in style amongst millennials, who’ve by no means used older applied sciences like fax machines. Particularly, social media platforms have change into a routine methodology of constructing purchases since 2019.
Promoting Vogue By means of Social Media
Betancourt Lopez realized the best means of promoting a trending trend accent was via social media since this was the place influencers expressed their model preferences. He started with Fb Advertisements, which solely value $45 every in 2016.
This small funding allowed Hawkers to attach with a big viewers that might simply place orders and share posts, additional extending the corporate’s attain. As of 2022, Hawkers was spending $14,000 on Fb each day to proceed rising its Fb following of 6.6 million.
Fb and different on-line firms have requested Hawkers to make shows of its enterprise journeys to their executives.
Hawkers can also be lively on Instagram, the place it bought advertisements that enhance income and join with influencers. This platform permits Hawkers to share related tags like #hawkers and #hawkersco, which have appeared on Instagram posts over 630,000 occasions.
As well as, influencers who promote Hawkers merchandise can get a reduction on purchases and even free merchandise. Influencers additionally get commissions for orders ensuing from their social media posts. Betancourt Lopez and his staff developed particular promotions to inspire glad prospects to publish about their constructive experiences.
Hawkers assembled groups of representatives to advertise the model at many schools, leading to a complete of over 5,000 ambassadors on campuses all through the world. They publish about what they do and locations they go to whereas sporting Hawkers sun shades. As well as, they inform followers the best way to order these merchandise. In alternate, Hawkers reps get incentives like journey vouchers and live performance tickets.
Mentioned Betancourt Lopez, particularly really useful these channels for anybody actually involved about having their palms on actual natural development. And when mixed with movie star endorsements and associating your merchandise with different prime manufacturers, the outcome may be actually mind-blowing.
In accordance with Lopez, steady studying about new advertising strategies, particularly as an entrepreneur is crucial. It might probably assist entrepreneurs stay humble whereas attaining a prepared perspective. He mentioned he at all times leverages studying alternatives from commerce publications, on-line sources, and networking occasions every time he can.
As well as, Hawkers presents its sun shades to insiders within the trend trade, together with private assistants, photographers, and stylists, within the hopes that these merchandise will seem in movie star pictures.
These stars typically hold on to their sun shades and proceed sporting them fairly than returning them. Hawkers have additionally created limited-edition traces for its manufacturers, additional constructing the curiosity and demand for its merchandise.
Pedro Beneyto’s position as Hawkers’ new CEO is among the firm’s newest strikes in attaining its objective of breaking into the worldwide sun shades market. Betancourt Lopez’s affect as each a main investor and the corporate’s president has confirmed to be a key issue within the firm’s success.
The apply of serving in a management position within the firms he invests in has change into one in every of Betancourt Lopez’s emblems, along with his emphasis on social media as a advertising software.