Global Retail News: Can you explain Chalhoub’s retail business?
Patrick Chalhoub: My parents created the family fi rm of Chalhoub in 1955, based in Damas, Syria. We imported French luxury brands such as Christofl e tableware for the new upper class. Chalhoub runs 600 shops covering up to 10,000 sq.m. GLA in 14 Middle Eastern countries with annual sales up by 20 % in 2013. It is active in three re-tail sectors: beauty (47 % of our turnover), fashion and accessories (40%) and home equipment (5%).
What international retailers do you part-ner with?
PC: Let’s consider Sephora and L’Occitane in the beauty sector, and Carolina Herrera, Dior, Chanel and Lacoste in the fashion sec-tor. We have been the franchisor of the U.S. department stores Saks 5th Avenue since 2004.
