Editor’s Note: Airport Experience News has launched the ACDBE of Distinction award to honor small, Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprises-certified firms that excel in their field. Pilar Guzmán, CEO of Half Moon Empanadas, is one of six winners for 2024.
Empanada Empire
Pilar Guzmán Is Leading Half Moon Empanadas On A Rapid Expansion Path
BY Carol Ward
Pilar Guzmán learned the hard way that her company’s signature empanadas would appeal to people in high-traffic locations, and to people who were looking for grab-and- go options.
Guzmán launched Half Moon Empanadas in 2008 with a large-footprint location in Miami’s South Beach. “It just didn’t work financially,” she recalls. “All of the assumptions that you can make – about the location, the rent, the price of the product – everything was completely off.”
With struggles at her first street location, Guzmán began setting up at festivals in the area, carting her table, tent, empanadas and gas-powered warmer to different locations in an effort to save her business. She approached the culinary team at University of Miami and, after a few rejections, the school finally offered her a cart for selling on campus, Guzmán says. That move was successful, so she looked at other non-traditional markets for opportunities. An acquaintance suggested Miami International Airport (MIA), and Guzmán landed a presentation in front of the concessions team.
“I had no idea what I was doing, but later they came up with an empanada location [bid] package that was for ACDBEs only,” Guzmán says. “The Miami airport was very visionary and conscious about giving these opportunities to small businesses – this was six kiosks that they built just for small businesses.”
Bringing The Bid
“My first seven years as an entrepreneur, I made no money,” says Guzmán. “We were almost bankrupt from the South Beach restaurant. I had a kitchen and two or three locations in the university, I couldn’t make ends meet.”
But with the RFP from MIA coming out, Guzmán decided to put her final stash of money – about $10,000 – into responding to the opportunity. She was successful, and the first airport location of Half Moon Empanadas was locked in, opening in 2015. “So that’s how we started in airports,” she says. “It was by hustling, and by luck of showing up at the airport [at the right time]. We opened the store and started selling like crazy.” Guzmán says Half Moon Empanadas quickly became the most successful small business concept at MIA. “When you look at sales, we were and still are the best-selling location per square foot in the entire Miami airport,” she says.
Guzmán says she received valuable coaching from the MIA concessions team, including the advice to attend the Airport Experience Conference. She showed up with her empanada cart and, after a steep learning curve on the logistics of exhibiting in a hotel space, began introducing her concept to airports and concessionaires. Guzmán remembers her grassroots outreach efforts, actively cornering people in the Experience Hall and convincing them to try an empanada.
Through that first conference and subsequent ones, Guzmán built Half Moon Empanadas’ reputation as a solid business proposition with strong airport sales. She was ready to expand.
Spreading The Empanada Joy
But expansion didn’t come easy. In 2017 and 2018 Guzmán bid on three airport opportunities – at Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Denver International (DEN). She lost on all three bids.
“Those three bids gave me a lot of insight into how the airports worked,” she says, noting that she realized she needed to switch from producing empanadas on-site to shipping them from a central kitchen. She fielded hard questions from industry colleagues, which forced her to refine her business model.
Meantime, her Miami fortunes were taking off. She expanded not only at MIA but elsewhere in the city as well. The temptation was to stay local, Guzmán says, but she still believed airports were a prime fit for her brand. Guzmán eventually connected with fellow ACDBE-certified operators Gonzalo de la Melena Jr. of Emerging Airport Ventures and LeeAnna Fresquez of Fresquez Companies. The three partnered to bid on an opportunity at DEN. This time around the team won, and Half Moon Empanadas opened in 2023.
Guzmán also noticed that some operators faced challenges in opening during the pandemic, and was aggressive in her offers to transition struggling locations to Half Moon Empanadas. “That’s how we started getting opportunities with licenses,” she says. “Today we work with all the major primes. We don’t give exclusivity even though they asked for it.”
By the end of 2024, Half Moon Empanadas is expected to be in 13 airports with 19 total locations. About half are owned and operated by the company; the others operate under license agreements. Guzmán says there is “a debate in my head” about which is the preferred arrangement, but as she gains more experience, she’s leaning toward owned enterprises.
“I will continue to license – it’s not something that I’m stopping – but I feel more brave now, more clear that I can actually run a store. I didn’t feel like that a year ago,” she says, noting that building a team outside her home market was daunting. “I’m open to every opportunity as long as it makes sense for the brand and it makes sense numbers-wise,” she adds.
Extending The Reach
Guzmán is looking to grow in the airport concessions industry, but she’s also eager to share her expertise with others, particularly women and Latinos. “We’re very competitive, but this is an industry that has been so supportive, with mentorship, with opening doors, with taking the calls,” she says, recalling the myriad industry people who shared their expertise with her over the past decade.
“I am appreciative of being in such a small industry that gives you such great opportunities,” she says. “My only call to everybody is, we’ve got to open up to more minority-owned small businesses.”
Bigger picture, Guzmán eventually wants to create a program that funds Latina entrepreneurs in the United States. She also envisions a line of frozen empanadas for distribution in grocery stores, and possibly franchising on the street. Airports, Guzmán says, have been the “sweet spot” for the brand so far, and she wants to be in all the major airports in the country.
To achieve her goals, Guzmán says she’ll continue to be “very, very pushy.” “I don’t know what word to use in English,” she continues, “but I have to be on top of these people with a smile, and always ask, ‘Can I have it?’”
