Régis ARNOUX

Régis Arnoux: a globe- traveling entrepreneur

Régis Arnoux, born in Marseille in 1938, has had a passion for travel from an early age. His schooling with the Jesuits, followed by a law degree, only strengthened what he calls “his thirst to discover other worlds”. It’s a need that could only have made him an enlightened globetrotter, but which from the very first years of his professional life was to give rise to and develop his entrepreneurial talents.

At the very beginning, employed by a Marseilles-based group to work in a debt collection department, he found the task “thankless and socially arduous”, and therefore uninteresting because it was too sedentary. So, when he discovered that his employer was also in the catering business, he pushed the door of management to apply. His boldness paid off, for at just 27 years of age, on Christmas Eve, Régis Arnoux found himself at the head of a subsidiary in French Guiana. A remote, inhospitable territory known for its penal colony, which France intended to develop by starting construction of what was to become the Kourou space center.

A few years spent with his wife and two very young daughters on this land to be cleared, highlighted his ability to manage a living base in an extreme environment. Attentive to the needs of staff of different nationalities, with a very appropriate sense of organization and a good sense of management, the young Régis Arnoux felt another need growing within him: that of independence.

It was only a short step from there to flying solo. First sketched out with the creation of CIR in association with a major construction group, which would later contribute its shares to Pierre Bellon, the founder of Sodexo; then clearly crossed in 1992 with the creation of Catering International & Services, CIS. A step that materialized a fierce determination to build a family business and mobilize the experience acquired around the world to forge a new approach to catering. The business that CIS is developing around its core competencies of catering and accommodation for thousands of people on a daily basis in the most isolated locations.

Over the past 32 years, Régis Arnoux has constantly innovated to enrich the range of innovative logistical tools and services it offers. As a result, the group has become a world-renowned leader, contributing to Marseille’s reputation.