Marcos Campos and Carlos Hurel insisted on creating the most delicious hamburger in Guayaquil in the midst of confinement.
Comar Bites arose from Sunday meetings between a chef and a food-loving lawyer, in the midst of the initial confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, between March and June 2020.
The name comes from inverting the syllables of the name of one of its creators (Mexican chef Marcos Campos) plus the word bite in English. “I accepted it because it was catchy and sounded good; it was a logo that had already been prepared,” says Carlos Hurel, an Ecuadorian who shares the study of legal cases with home delivery of hamburgers.
The 31-year-olds finished creating the recipe in June 2020 and started the following month with the Comar Smash Burguer, which has double meat and cheddar cheese, house mayonnaise, caramelized onions and pickles for $3. .99 (apart from the cost of shipping, which is calculated by a digital platform that they use according to distance), a price that remains the same.
The business started with an investment of $3,000 in a fryer, a griddle plus brochures. Attention is from Wednesday to Sunday, from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., all digitally. Until this week they occupy a kitchen set up by Hurel’s sister, who has a catering business and only uses it until noon.
At the beginning, they received the orders through the Instagram profiles (which have gone from 150 in the first two months to almost 10,000 followers today) and Facebook that they created. Now they work with a digital platform (Spoonity), with which after a bimonthly or annual payment, which does not depend on the volume of sales, they offer their customers a simplified, safe and direct purchase process that is accessed through a hyperlink that they publish on their social networks.
Payment is by bank transfer, credit card or cash when the order arrives at home.
They managed the profiles themselves and gave the product to acquaintances with a high number of followers so that they could spread the word and recommend it. Then they began to comment without looking for it and a ball of followers was created.
It is cyclical. There are weeks when the number of followers increases by 400, then stops and goes back from there. “They are not bots (programmed agents) or fake accounts. From there we grew. Now we sell 500 weekly, on average; but, at the beginning, selling 20 was something that made us happy”, says Carlos, who recognizes that the first months are hard and no economic return is seen despite the time spent.
But after the first year, completed in July 2021, there was a profit that both invested in a store that will open next week in the Buena Vista Plaza shopping center, on Samborondón Avenue.
“We focus on making the best hamburger in Guayaquil, that is our goal. I have always liked cooking and grills,” says Carlos, who has been a friend of Marcos since they were both 14 years old, when they were in high school.
The opening of the restaurant was decided after a market study based on the output of the product and the orders of its customers, who asked them to enjoy the different hamburgers sitting in a room.
One community manager He has joined the three-person Comar Bites plant to manage the profiles on networks, while Marcos and Carlos are in charge of running the kitchen and ensuring that the orders come out with the highest possible quality.
The number of employees will rise to ten with the opening of the business, for which they added two investors that they chose carefully and with whom they are only partners in the restaurant.
“In the beginning we managed the social networks ourselves and took the photos; but later we said that, if we want it to work, well, we need to hire someone who knows about this, because you have to sectorize advertising, you have to send the right message, and that has helped us a lot,” says Carlos, known as Carlucho for his friends.
The two partners realized that they couldn’t do everything without neglecting product quality and service. One of the keys to scaling, says Carlos, is to define competitive prices after a market study. “We analyze and test products, look for suppliers, ‘this cheese or meat suits me’, and from there find a balance to see which gives us the best result for our hamburger, with the aim of not inflating the final cost to the consumer.”
The idea of the restaurant was embodied in a moodboard (panel of words, colors, shapes and photos) that they presented to a designer so that with that concept, well, he would physically make it. No decision or action has left her adrift.
The opening of the premises required the constitution of a company with the four partners. “Advantageously, there is the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Law (approved and in force since February 2020), which saves registration and notary costs. Taking advantage of the fact that I am a lawyer, well, I created it in three days and, from that, do all the procedures, such as opening the bank account. It is called Simplified Stock Company; It is a very friendly process for entrepreneurs. In the municipal permits we are still detained, because there you do need to have the premises made for the inspection of firefighters, “says Carlos.
Discrepancies between partners are fixed on the spot, separating friendship from business and defining roles well. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
