Yuxus was born from an idea of three 16-year-old friends who managed to raise 1,000 euros to launch their first batch of T-shirts. Six years later, the brand has firmly established itself in the retail landscape with the opening of two brand corners in Spanish department store El Corte Inglés, in addition to their presence at Wow Concept and Newcop.
FashionUnited wanted to know more about this project by young Spanish entrepreneurs Álvaro, Guillermo Ferre and Fernando Carrillo. The trio is aiming to reach a turnover of 11 million euros this year, a goal they are working towards with what is their “biggest collection to date”.
How did the original idea for Yuxus come about and how has it developed since then?
Yuxus: The birth of the brand was spontaneous; we didn’t do extensive market research or analyze the feasibility of the project. We raised the 1,000 euros needed for the first batch of T-shirts to get started, and that got the ball rolling.
The company has grown by taking small but steady steps in its journey from e-commerce to physical retail. Although we started without big investors or much experience, we have managed to build a profitable business. We have evolved from our garage as a warehouse to exporting to almost twenty countries.
“Back then, we were just three young students who wanted to start a company and create something new.”
We founded the brand in 2018, before we even started university. All three of us are currently studying at university in fields related to business, entrepreneurship and innovation, which has given us the skills to take the brand to the next level.
In addition to our academic training, we constantly try to learn new skills, both through online courses and by attending trainings, in addition to consulting experts and, of course, reading. It is important to constantly learn in order to adapt to new technologies, take advantage of new business opportunities and expand our knowledge.
What projects are you currently working on and what are your plans for the near future?
Today, we have offices in the center of Madrid. Our team already has more than 20 employees and we expect to double that number this year. As the openings in the different physical stores that we will open throughout Spain during 2024, in addition to the shop-in-shops at El Corte Inglés, we plan to relocate part of the team in phases to the main cities in Spain to ensure better coverage and build a closer bond with our audience.
In addition to the national expansion, we are carrying out a series of investments to attract a foreign audience, with a focus on the European and North American markets. It is a risky bet, as they are very competitive economies with frequent barriers to entry, but we are confident in our marketing and aim to internationalize the brand as much as possible.
What specific challenges do you face when entering new markets and how do you tackle them?
In 2023, we opened our first store on Calle Fuencarral shopping street in Madrid and this year we have two more openings planned in different Spanish cities, such as Valencia and Seville, bringing our total to 10 physical points of sale by the end of 2024.
We want to be closer to our customers by opening physical points of sale that allow us to improve the shopping experience, and also by working with partners in the Spanish market such as Newcop, Wow Concept and El Corte Inglés, where we are already present with two brand corners, one in Madrid, in La Castellana, and another in Sagasta, Zaragoza.
In terms of international expansion, Yuxus landed in Paris in April with the Newcop physical store. In addition, we are planning the first opening of our own physical store outside Spain, for which we are considering several cities that will allow us to scale within Europe.
Within two years, we want to have at least twenty physical points of sale, divided between our own stores and multi-brand stores. Internationally, the aim is to generate at least 50 percent of turnover outside Spain, in order to be less dependent on the domestic market.
What are your revenue growth expectations for this year and how do you plan to achieve those goals?
Since our inception, we have focused on maximizing revenue rather than pursuing profit generation. The lack of external investors has sometimes hampered the brand’s growth; however, Yuxus closed 2022 with its first million euros in revenue and developed a solid foundation that enabled the company to scale to 3 million euros in revenue in 2023.
For this year, the target has been set at a turnover of 11 million euros, which seems ambitious, but we are confident that we can achieve it with the new brand spaces and the growing foreign demand that will give sales an unprecedented boost.
Scalability is one of our most important principles in the company. Above all, we are working on laying the foundations of a solid long-term project so that Yuxus can establish itself as one of the leading young fashion brands, and we are determined to take the brand to the next level.
We are driven by our desire to create something that goes beyond a line of products with a logo; we want to define a movement that truly inspires new generations and that people all over the world can identify with.
Who are your key customers and how have you built an international community around the brand?
Our target group are young people from all over the world. Both men and women who are looking for oversized and comfortable clothing made with high-quality and sustainable materials. Young people who want to dress in an innovative way, express a unique style and who pursue the values of the brand.
The brand aims to develop a universal style and create an international community, or as we call it, an “Overseas Club”. The goal is to generate impact beyond our borders to influence youth around the world and create a sense of belonging to something that goes beyond a simple clothing brand.
With this goal in mind, we collaborate with international influencers, public figures to whom we send clothes in exchange for uploading content on their social networks, a way to advertise the brand.
This article was originally published on FashionUnited.ES. Translation by AI, editing by Sylvana Lijbaart.
Source: fashionunited.nl
