Celio is a new age menswear brand which has a facebook following of 250,000 fans. The brand strives to be ahead of the curve in bringing avant-garde technology and is gearing up to be multi-channel player.
In an interaction with TFW, Rajiv Nair, Chief Executive Officer, Celio Future Fashion Limited, is positive about exploring franchise mode and eyeing to add over 50 stores in India within this year.
Share in detail about Celio. How and when it entered the Indian market?
Celio is one of the largest menswear brands in France and has a dominant presence with over 500 stores in the country. It is a leading brand in Italy, Spain, Belgium and also has good presence in the Eastern European region including Russia. Celio as a brand was established in 1985 by two brothers Marc and Laurent Grosman.
Celio started its journey in India as a Joint Venture with the Future Group and now it has an FDI approval and the company is now owned by Celio International. Future group continues to hold minority stake in the company. We started first Celio store in India in 2009 and today have 41 stores and 128 Shop-in- Shops spread across over 98,000 sq.ft of retail area. We have presence in prominent malls and high streets. We have also expanded presence in cluster B and C cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jaipur, Dehradun, Mangalore, Mysore, Kanpur, Nagpur etc. We adopt the absolute latest in fashion trends in the garments as the products cater to over 70 countries and especially European markets. We adapt a few products for India especially for fits but maintain the core range which is international. Celio stores are based on our international concept stores and are largely glass and metal with strong digital elements including live streamed screens. We will have over 50 stores in India by this year end.
What would be the preferred business model for expansion?
We invite franchise enquires on a franchise-owned franchise-operated (FOFO) model from across the country and plan to set up at least ten franchise stores this year. We are interested only to work with retail focussed franchisees and not merely investors. We can help the franchisee establish a sound retail business model which can be profitable for the franchisee.
We run over 200 franchise stores internationally. We have an Ops team and VM team which is trained in France and can help any franchisee understand all operational processes, product and customer service parameters.
Do you follow any criterion for selection of franchisees on board?
We are looking at retailers and not investors as franchisees. We would love to forge long term partnerships where we help the franchisee with the merchandise assortment planning, store standards, marketing and logistics. We would also help the franchisee in staff training in all areas of business including business analysis.
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