Alpargatas creates Spain-based international division for Havaianas

By

Eva Gracia Morales

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Oct 21, 2020

Brazilian footwear group Alpargatas has reorganised the senior management structure of its leading brand, Havaianas. The group has created Havaianas International, the flip-flop brand’s international division that will be led by Frederic Levy, with headquarters in Spain.

Levy has been appointed president of Havaianas International and “will be in charge of all markets outside Brazil, in a new role created to accelerate the brand’s global expansion,” Alpargatas stated in a press release.

Levy is a highly experienced senior executive. He has joined Havaianas from Coravin, a start-up operating in the wine industry that is active in 60 countries, of which he was the CEO. Levy was formerly the president of Nespresso North America and drove the brand’s expansion in the USA, opening 30 stores. Before that, he was Nespresso’s international e-business manager, spearheading the launch of the coffee company's e-commerce operations.

The newly created Havaianas International division will be based in Spain - the headquarters of Alpargatas’s EMEIA region are located in Madrid - and Levy will report directly to the CEO of Alpargatas, Roberto Funari.

Havaianas was founded in 1962, and since then its flip-flops have become a global footwear icon. The brand enjoys a strong connection with the Spanish market: last spring, Havaianas opened a new store in Madrid, in calle Fuencarral; it has also collaborated with two labels owned by the Inditex group, Pull&Bear and Stradivarius and, at the peak of the Covid-19 emergency, it donated €100,000 to the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid, to fund medical equipment purchases.