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Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Luxury’s Race to the Top

Giants like LVMH and Kering enjoy scale benefits that are hard for competitors to overcome, but there’s still hope for smaller players, writes Pierre Mallevays.
A Yayoi Kusama sculpture is displayed on the top of the Louis Vuitton's Champs Elysees store.
Giants like LVMH and Kering enjoy scale benefits that are hard for competitors to overcome, but there’s still hope for smaller players, writes Pierre Mallevays. (Getty Images)

LVMH pioneered the concept of a luxury group in the 1980s and is largely credited with having saved the French fashion and leather goods industry from oblivion. For years, it looked like LVMH might be the sole consolidator in fashion and leather goods, with Swatch and Richemont carving out dominant positions in hard luxury (saving the Swiss mechanical watch industry from destitution). The entry of PPR (now Kering) into the game with the 1999 acquisitions of Gucci and Sanofi Beauté (which owned YSL and YSL Beauty) changed the game, validating LVMH’s strategy and opening the door for other, albeit smaller, consolidators such as Capri Holdings, Tapestry and Prada Group. What’s driving this race to the top? Who has benefitted? And who has lost out?

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Further Reading

How Vulnerable Is LVMH?

This week, shares soared after luxury’s biggest player reported another quarter of better-than-expected results. But protesters flooding Paris’ tony shopping streets penetrated LVMH’s headquarters — sounding the alarm for luxury’s political climate.

Louis Vuitton, Dior Get New CEOs in LVMH Shakeup

Pietro Beccari will succeed Michael Burke leading LVMH flagship Louis Vuitton, while Delphine Arnault will become Dior’s new CEO as part of the luxury conglomerate’s biggest executive reshuffle in years.

Kering Sales Edge Up 1%, Lagging Rivals

Sales at French luxury group Kering rose by just 1 percent in the first quarter, as star label Gucci benefited less than rivals from a rebound in China, and revenues fell sharply in the US.

Can Kering Get Back On Track?

Gucci’s sales dropped 15 percent during the fourth-quarter while scandal-mired Balenciaga also stalled. Still, shares rose as investors rallied behind a bullish outlook for China.

In This Article

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