Relaunching Camaïeu is “a real source of pride” for Célio CEO Sébastien Bismuth

A new space “Be Camaïeu” has just opened in Lille, now linking the brand with its male equivalent, Célio. The launch of a new strategy, launched by the new boss of the group.

“It’s a real pride to try to revive this name after all these years of history”congratulates Sébastien Bismuth, CEO of Célio, on France Bleu Nord, as a “Be Camaïeu” space opens on Thursday, August 29 in a Célio department store in the Euralille shopping center. The Célio group bought the Camaïeu brand in 2022 after its liquidation, and is now relaunching the brand under the name “Be Camaïeu” to provide a women’s line to its Célio stores, historically specialized in men’s ready-to-wear.

This name, “Be Camaïeu” is the image of the brand, “Be, that means basic-essential” because “We have expertise in these basic, essential equipment products and we wanted to develop a women’s line”. So when “The opportunity to buy the Camaïeu name presented itself with extremely high awareness, since the awareness rate is 93%”they made the project a reality. He emphasizes that he recruited “more than 100 people” for this launch.

He considers that Camaïeu is “the alter ego” by Célio: one for women, the other for men. The challenge will therefore be to “bringing women into Célio, when we’ve been selling men’s clothing for 47 years”he said, “and indeed, we will rely on Camaïeu’s reputation” and on “the DNA of Camaïeu’s history” to succeed.

While the ready-to-wear sector is in crisis, Sabastien Bismuth is confident about the launch of “Be Camaïeu”, attributing its surprise liquidation in 2022 to “a wall of debt” Who “influenced the strategy of this company”. The brand “had to open or reopen stores to meet this debt, and the reality is that this was not the strategic move that had to be made because we need fewer stores, and bigger stores.”. He therefore prefers to recall that “Over 40 years of history, for 35 years this company was a success, but unfortunately after that it did not make good strategic decisions on financial matters”.