French-brand Celio to open more stores

Celio, a French family-owned business brand that offers men’s ready to wear clothing has its presence worldwide. The brand is planning to add over 50 more stores in India by year-end, and has around 1,000 stores across the globe.

On his business plan, Rajiv Nair, Chief Executive Officer, Celio Future Fashion Limited, told Franchise India, “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 cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jaipur, Dehradun, Mangalore, Mysore, Kanpur, Nagpur and others. We will have over 50 stores in India by this year-end.”

The brand prefers franchise-owned franchise-operated (FOFO) model in the country and plans to set up at least tenfranchise stores this year. “We run over 200 franchise stores internationally. We are interested only to work with retail focused franchisees and not merely investors. We can help franchisees establish a sound retail business model which can be profitable for them. We would help the franchisees in all areas of business including merchandise, assortment, planning, store standards, marketing, logistics, staff training and business analysis,” he adds.

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 owned by Celio International. Future group continues to hold minority stake in the company.