Polo Ralph Lauren to open first franchised stores in France, a prelude to European expansion

By

Christel Divert

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Sep 27, 2018

The Polo Ralph Lauren franchise is getting off the ground in France. Ralph Lauren’s casualwear label has recently signed up two French retailers, its first franchisees in the country. Dorothée and Bruno Coqblin will open a Polo Ralph Lauren store in the Alpine resort of Chamonix, and Jacques Vuillermet will follow suit in the city of Lyon.

The very first franchised Polo Ralph Lauren store in France will be inaugurated on December 1 in Chamonix. It will occupy the 120-square-metre premises formerly home to a Chanel shop. The new franchisees operate a series of medium/high-end multibrand men's and women’s fashion stores under the Blue Ink banner in La Baule, Saint-Martin-de-Ré, Megève and Chamonix.

A few months later, in March 2019, a second Polo Ralph Lauren franchise will open at 150-square-metre premises in rue de Brest, Lyon. The franchisee, Jacques Vuillermet, also operates a Tommy Hilfiger franchise in the city. The new store will showcase the Polo Ralph Lauren menswear collections on the ground floor, and the womenswear collections on the first floor.

According to the new franchisees, both of them already working with Polo Ralph Lauren in their multibrand shops, franchising is a new growth vector for the US label. If results will be satisfactory, more Polo Ralph Lauren franchises are expected to crop up across Europe.

Apart from factory outlet stores, Polo Ralph Lauren doesn’t operate any directly owned shops in France, while it opened a first flagship store in London in 2016.