Turkish Giant LC Waikiki Strengthens Leadership with Juan Chaparro on Board

LC Waikiki brings in more talent from fashion giants. The group, Turkey’s largest fashion chain, has added Juan Chaparro as an independent board member. The executive has three decades of experience in fashion companies such as Inditex, Primark and Esprit.

To accelerate its international growth, the Turkish company has recruited Juan Chaparro, who “will provide valuable contributions to LC Waikiki’s strategic transformation process. His appointment is part of the company’s expansion phase in Europe,“ the company explained in a statement.

Chaparro has led global supply chain and procurement functions at companies such as Primark, Esprit and Inditex. With a degree in Business Administration and Management from Uned and a master’s degree in commercial management and marketing from Esic, the executive began his career at Inditex, as part of the purchasing department of Pull&Bear. In 2009, Chaparro took over the management of Trafaluc, Zara’s youth line, a position he held until 2013.

LC Waikiki incorporated the Spanish Paula Dumond last July, as chief product officer

That same year, the executive joined Esprit as part of the dream team of Spanish executives recruited by José Manuel Martínez Gutiérrez, then CEO of the company. At Esprit, Chaparro was responsible for supply chain and was also in charge of the group’s business in Asia Pacific.

In November 2018, Chaparro made the jump to Primark. At the Irish giant, where he stayed until November 2022, the executive held a key position in the company as supervisor of the group’s supply chain.

LC Waikiki, one of Turkey’s largest chains, hired Paula Dumont as chief product officer last July. Dumont joined the company to head up the company’s entire offering, including women’s, men’s and children’s and all product categories. Until last December, Dumont was Primark’s global product director, a position she left for personal reasons.

In March this year, the Turkish giant also brought on board Javier Villar as a group executive. Villar holds the position of co-CEO, alongside Mustafa Küçük, the company’s majority shareholder and one of the country’s largest fortunes. Villar has a track record of more than sixteen years at Inditex, where in his last stage he was part of the sourcing and supply chain area. Villar has also worked for companies such as Tendam.

The company, which closed 2024 with a turnover of 144,700 million Turkish Liras ($3.4 billion) and an export volume of around 1,100 million euros, centralizes its design and production in Turkey, with local adaptations to markets such as the Middle East, Ghana or Kenya. LC Waikiki designs 87 million products each year, organized into different sub-brands and collections for 26 different types of people and styles.