The Hawkers sunglasses company has recently reshuffled its senior management team, including the appointment of Pedro Beneyto as the new CEO. Beneyto has previously worked for the eyewear company Alain Afflelou and jewelry designer Suarez.
Beneyto began working for Hawkers in May 2022, and his primary task as CEO will be to lead the firm’s strategy for global growth for the foreseeable future. Hawkers’ current development plans are based on three areas: international expansion, its franchise system, and the development of the firm’s retail network.
“Hawkers is a very powerful brand that, until now, has focused its activity on selling sunglasses,” Beneyto said. “We have many amazing objectives, and one of them is to move our eyewear offering to prescription eyeglasses. We have a couple of ways we can achieve this. We can either go by way of franchising or through our own network of opticians.”
The company is currently investing heavily in foreign markets, which already account for the majority of its online sales. Hawkers’ website is now available in over 80 countries, and it operates over 70 retail outlets in Spain, Italy, and Portugal.
The firm’s flagship product has been sunglasses since it was launched, but it recently introduced a line of eyeglasses called Hawkers Eyewear. This product line is already carried by 15 opticians in Portugal and Spain.
Alejandro Betancourt Lopez: ‘We Plan to Expand’
Hawkers was founded in 2013 as an online sunglasses reseller. In addition to Hawkers itself, the company has many brands of eyewear and other fashion accessories, including Battleboro, Miss Hamptons, Northweek, and Wolfnoir.
Hawkers also acquired Loopas, a contact lens retailer, in 2020 to support the company’s expansion into prescription eyewear. In 2022, Hawkers opened its first factory, which is in Elche, Spain. This move is part of the company’s commitment to “made in Spain” production.
This has been Betancourt Lopez’s game plan all along. He explained that the company, which was founded after a $300 investment in 2013, is worth $60 million in 2021. He mentioned that even though the company is making huge progress in Spain, its goal is to expand to more markets in other countries.
Hawkers also have the plan to form more partnerships with other brands for shoes, clothing, and jewelry. This would be a mutual benefit for both the company and its partners – both of them will be selling more products due to the partnership.
He also stated that the company also has some other amazing plans for the future, including making more environmentally friendly sunglasses without sacrificing fashion.
Hawkers’ sunglasses are designed for both strength and comfort. The frames are constructed of stainless steel with a covering of cellulose acetate, which is durable and nontoxic. This design is proving highly popular, as more people show a preference for environmentally friendly products.
Its H2O line of six products also uses recycled plastic, including waste removed from the oceans. In addition, the packaging for these latest designs is composed of biodegradable or sustainable materials, such as recycled paper and plastic.
Alejandro Betancourt Lopez’s Role
Betancourt Lopez’s investment in Hawkers was instrumental in the startup’s rapid growth into a major player in the eyewear market. Betancourt Lopez attributes this success to the right combination of tools, timing, people, and support, saying, “If that’s in the equation, I think you can effectively make something happen and be a good leader. I believe in good leadership, but also I believe in people. If you don’t have the right team, you will not get anywhere.”
Betancourt Lopez added that he saw great potential in Hawkers in 2016, prompting him to implement his marketing vision by making great use of social media. This strategy catapulted the company to the top of its sector, and Betancourt Lopez became known as a disrupter in the sunglasses market.
Prior to Betancourt Lopez’s involvement, Hawkers’ budget was an important consideration for buying sunglasses. Consumers could easily buy a cheap pair in many physical outlets such as convenience and grocery stores. They might lose or break them within a short period of time, but the low cost meant that it wasn’t a great loss.
On the other hand, expensive sunglasses were also readily available from upscale boutiques specializing in designer eyewear. These sunglasses could last for years if the owner was careful, but the financial loss could be significant if they were lost or damaged.
With Hawkers, consumers can purchase a durable, affordable pair of sunglasses just by swiping or clicking on a social media ad. This approach to making purchases is especially popular among millennials, who have never used older technologies like fax machines. In particular, social media platforms have become a routine method of making purchases since 2019.
Selling Fashion Through Social Media
Betancourt Lopez realized the most effective way of selling a trending fashion accessory was through social media since this was where influencers expressed their brand preferences. He began with Facebook Ads, which only cost $45 each in 2016.
This small investment allowed Hawkers to connect with a large audience that could easily place orders and share posts, further extending the company’s reach. As of 2022, Hawkers was spending $14,000 on Facebook daily to continue growing its Facebook following of 6.6 million.
Facebook and other online companies have asked Hawkers to make presentations of its business journeys to their executives.
Hawkers is also active on Instagram, where it purchased ads that boost revenue and connect with influencers. This platform allows Hawkers to share relevant tags like #hawkers and #hawkersco, which have appeared on Instagram posts over 630,000 times.
In addition, influencers who promote Hawkers products can get a discount on purchases or even free products. Influencers also get commissions for orders resulting from their social media posts. Betancourt Lopez and his team developed special promotions to motivate satisfied customers to post about their positive experiences.
Hawkers assembled teams of representatives to promote the brand at many colleges, resulting in a total of over 5,000 ambassadors on campuses throughout the world. They post about what they do and places they visit while wearing Hawkers sunglasses. In addition, they tell followers how to order these products. In exchange, Hawkers reps get incentives like travel vouchers and concert tickets.
Said Betancourt Lopez, specifically recommended these channels for anyone really concerned about having their hands on real organic growth. And when combined with celebrity endorsements and associating your products with other top brands, the result can be really mind-blowing.
According to Lopez, continuous learning about new marketing techniques, especially as an entrepreneur is essential. It can help entrepreneurs remain humble while achieving a willing attitude. He said he always leverages learning opportunities from trade publications, online sources, and networking events whenever he can.
In addition, Hawkers offers its sunglasses to insiders in the fashion industry, including personal assistants, photographers, and stylists, in the hopes that those products will appear in celebrity photographs.
These stars often hang on to their sunglasses and continue wearing them rather than returning them. Hawkers have also created limited-edition lines for its brands, further building the interest and demand for its products.
Pedro Beneyto’s role as Hawkers’ new CEO is one of the company’s latest moves in achieving its goal of breaking into the global sunglasses market. Betancourt Lopez’s influence as both a major investor and the company’s president has proven to be a key factor in the company’s success.
The practice of serving in a leadership role in the companies he invests in has become one of Betancourt Lopez’s trademarks, in addition to his emphasis on social media as a marketing tool.
