Chalhoub Group – Rooted in Luxury

With a legacy of over 65 years, Chalhoub Group is today a leading partner, curator and creator of luxury products and services in the Middle East. Here, RLI sits down with Group President Patrick Chalhoub to learn more about this luxury group and what makes them so dedicated to making every customer experience unforgettable.

Back in 1955, Patrick Chalhoub’s parents, his late father Michel Chalhoub and his mother Widad opened the first Christofle store in Damascus with the purpose to inspire, exhilarate and delight their customers, and it still lives on today. In 1965 they made the strategic decision to move to Beirut, where they continued to build the business for another decade before moving to Kuwait and then finally onto Dubai where they opened the Chalhoub Group headquarters in 1990.

Today, the Group caters to its customers across multiple channels, including 680 experiential stores, online and through mobile apps throughout the GCC. “We are the “House of Brands in the region” helping to build over 300 global brands and more than 20 global joint ventures, while at the same time developing our seven unique “Own Brands” and continuing to incubate small businesses,” explains Patrick Chalhoub, Group President of Chalhoub Group. “We are actively investing to expand beyond our traditional frontiers, farther our reach into new emerging markets such as Latin America, India and Africa and to actively participate in some of the most innovative business models.”

Discussing their current fleet of stores, Patrick Chalhoub says that the Group continues to take great pleasure in bringing highly desired beauty and fashion brands to their consumers across the GCC region. They opened more than 10 stores in the newly developed Dubai Hills Mall and they are proud to have over 25 stores in the Place Vendome mall in Qatar.
Moving onto the development pipeline, Patrick Chalhoub explains that when the Group went through a restructuring two years ago, the strategy, growth, innovations and investments department was created to explore opportunities in new categories, markets and ventures and support the Group in its growth and innovation ambitions.

“Recently we have been exploring different avenues of addressing the circular economy broadly, including resale and rental models. Later this year, we will introduce an online pre-loved category, including a buy-back service, where we will offer store credit to consumers who want to declutter or simply re-sell their timeless bags, shoes, watches etc,” Patrick Chalhoub comments.

Other initiatives include the signing of an exclusive partnership with French jewellery brand Korloff, emphasising the Group’s expansion and investments to grow into high jewellery and luxury watches. The brand will also join the newly formed “Jewellery, Watches, and Eyewear” division of Chalhoub Group.

To maintain its position as a leading player in the market, the Group constantly move towards offering their consumer’s a hybrid experience, keeping innovation at the forefront of everything they do. They have an intelligence team and their mission is to support the growth of the Group and its brands by providing accurate and relevant industry market data, as well as building the forecasts and looking into the future. This intelligence team is positioned at the beginning of the funnel to spot and identify shifts and new trends in the industry, which can later enable their teams in making insightful decisions.

Discussing how the business engages with its customers, Patrick Chalhoub explains that the Group’s customers are at the heart of what they do and their priorities lie in responding to their hybrid consumers through CX, their loyalty program MUSE, clienteling, VoC and in-store experiences to inspire, delight and exhilarate them.

“The future of retail will lie-in creating meaningful connections with our consumers, putting digital, e-commerce & technologies first, investing in the right talents and thinking about experiential retail stores,” explains Chalhoub.

Sustainability has been ingrained in the Chalhoub Group since their beginnings. With a global footprint and 12,500 employees, the Group has been placing increased focus over the last few years on strategically embedding sustainability across their value chain, in-line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

“We strive to create a positive impact on People, Partners and the Planet in the eight countries where we have a direct presence to contribute to national and global agendas to help best meet local environmental and societal needs. As a board member of the United Nations Global Compact, I am personally invested in all aspects of our journey to further uphold the UNGC principles of human and labour rights, anti-corruption, transparency and protecting the environment as well as operating our business in a responsible manner.”

The Group continues to invest in its people, attract best in class talent and remain committed to building a workplace culture that focuses on respect, empowerment and trust. They are strengthening collaborations to create the right environment and surround themselves with teams who are passionate about a career in retail. This was how Patrick responded when asked about the key factors that have driven the Group’s success over the years.

“Professionalism, passion and the right people is what fuels our company’s key competitive edge in today’s market. Continuing building strong partnerships with the local communities, universities and technical schools to find the right people and provide them with job opportunities in our Group are key priorities for us.”

As our time with Patrick draws to a close, he ends the interview by speaking about the challenges both he and the company are facing. He explains that despite the challenges they face, the business will continue to be ambitious in an unstable and unpredictable market and that they believe in the key drivers in the region, related to the energy of the youth, the oil price, the economy diversification, the pace of reforms, tourism and growth of the luxury market.

“For me personally, my challenge is to permanently innovate and create, add value to our partners, inspire and delight our customers to future-proof our business as well as to continue to be recognised as a Great Place To Work® in five countries.”