Accent Group’s Armando Pedruco is set to take on the lead role of Harli + Harpa, several months after former Lovisa CEO Shane Fallscheer founded the low-price jewellery retailer.
Pedruco confirmed with Ragtrader that he will commence his new CEO role on June 16, saying his key focus will be scaling Harli + Harpa “aggressively” over the next few years. The retailer currently has over 30 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity to work with Shane again and help him build on what is already a fantastic business,” Pedruco said.
“After spending several weekends in stores over the last eight weeks I can see that the customers are loving the product, the team, and the store design.
“Shane is an experienced retailer and understands this category very well so I’m confident that together we can build a very successful business.”
Pedruco began his career as a trolley boy in Darwin for Rite Price supermarket, before shifting over to Dick Smith for an 18-year run where he grew to an executive level as the director of operations for AU/NZ.
The retail executive left his role in 2015 after the successful sale of Dick Smith from Woolworths Group to Anchorage Capital Partners – the current owners of David Jones – and an IPO.
He then moved over to Lovisa in 2015 as global general manager of sales, working alongside Fallscheer at the time.
In 2017, Pedruco shifted to Accent Group, where he remained for nearly eight years, ending up as the executive general manager of Platypus Shoes, Hype DC and Subtype, with his key achievement being building Platypus to a 200+ store network.
"We are very excited to have Armando join Harli and Harpa to lead us through the next level of growth," Harli + Harpa founder Shane Fallscheer said. "I had the pleasure of working with Armando previously so I know the skills that he will bring on day one.
"Furthermore, having worked with Daniel Agostinelli at Accent Group, which I hold in the highest regard as a leader and retailer, Armando has had the best possible development leading into taking on this role as CEO."
Pedruco succeeds Harli + Harpa’s inaugural CEO Cass Fuller, who has taken the newly launched retailer to court. A media report by The Australian stated her claims include allegations of lost wages and superannuation after allegedly being dismissed in early December last year.
The court case has already gone through three directions hearings over the last few months, according to the Commonwealth Courts Portal. The next directions hearing is expected to take place in mid-August.