Joe Fresh Names Mario Grauso Coo

Joseph Mimran & Associates Inc. (Toronto) has hired Mario Grauso as chief operating officer of its growing Joe Fresh apparel company. The company describes Grauso’s responsibilities in the new position as one “geared to help put the brand on the global stage.”

Women’s Wear Daily reports that Grauso will be responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the business, as well as new strategic partnerships and international retail expansion. He starts October 7, reporting directly to company president Joe Mimran, who’s also creative director of the Joe Fresh brand for Loblaw Cos. Ltd. (Brampton, Ont.), the Canadian supermarket chain that owns the brand.

Joe Fresh, which began as a shop within Loblaw’s more than 1000 stores, has more recently been focusing on opening standalone stores, first in North America but with an eye toward international expansion.

“The company has gotten to a size where we really felt we needed a chief operating officer to help me continue to grow the business and take it to the next level,” Mimran told WWD. “We’ve been searching for the right individual.”

Grauso was most recently president of the Vera Wang Group. Previously, he had been president of Puig Fashion (Barcelona), the parent company of Carolina Herrera, Nina Ricci and Paco Rabanne. He has also held executive positions at Céline, Giorgio Armani, Escada and Calvin Klein.

He will be second in command at the company, working out of both Toronto and New York.

Mimran is about to open a 14,000-square-foot Joe Fresh store on Broadway near Grand Street in New York’s SoHo. “We have another location yet to be announced in the New York area,” he told WWD. And “we are looking at other locations outside of New York.”

Internationally, Mimran said, “We are working on something, we are pretty close.” Grauso agreed, saying, “I think Asia is an obvious first step.”