Fj Benjamin : Celine in South-East Asia
FJ Benjamin gets exclusive rights to sell French brand in SE Asia. By Tung Shing Yi, Channel NewsAsia. Posted: 19 March 2007
SINGAPORE : Singapore fashion retailer FJ Benjamin is returning to luxury goods retailing, after a decade of selling mass market brands.
The company has acquired the exclusive rights from French luxury group LVMH to sell the French brand Celine across four countries in Southeast Asia.
FJ Benjamin also plans to accelerate the growth of Celine across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Mainboard-listed FJ Benjamin is acquiring seven Celine stores across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and may operate them as early as the end of March.
The franchise agreement with the LVMH group is for an initial term of seven years, with possible renewal for another seven years.
FJ Benjamin has mapped out an aggressive strategy for the Celine brand. It plans to double the number of Celine stores in Southeast Asia over the next three years. Nash Benjamin, CEO, FJ Benjamin Holdings, said, “They have grown the business quite substantially in North Asia, in China, in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea. A very rough estimate would be double or three times what they did three, four years ago.
“Southeast Asia has seen growth too. Singapore for example – we didn’t really have any growth in retailing until a year and a half ago. The market was very flat; as we said earlier on, we’re coming to this business at the right time, at the development of many malls and resorts and casinos and shopping malls being built, so the upside looks good.”
FJ Benjamin said the acquisition was part of the company’s strategy to expand its brand portfolio. The group was known for distributing high-end fashion brands like Gucci and Fendi, but it had to give up these brands after the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. Its current brand mix is mostly contemporary mass market brands like Gap, Banana Republic and Guess. Both sides have declined to reveal the size of the deal. But FJ Benjamin said the acquisition was likely to yield immediate returns on investment for the group.
Related posts: