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Gucci's CEO is Stepping Down as its French Parent Shakes up Leadership

FILE - Gucci President Marco Bizzarri, gestures as he attends a conference titled 'The Innovation Summit', in Milan, Italy, on July 3, 2017. Bizzarri is stepping down later this year, the latest shakeup to the luxury fashion brand and coming as part of a series of changes to the French conglomerate Kering that owns it. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
FILE - Gucci President Marco Bizzarri, gestures as he attends a conference titled 'The Innovation Summit', in Milan, Italy, on July 3, 2017. Bizzarri is stepping down later this year, the latest shakeup to the luxury fashion brand and coming as part of a series of changes to the French conglomerate Kering that owns it. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
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Gucci's CEO is Stepping Down as its French Parent Shakes up Leadership

FILE - Gucci President Marco Bizzarri, gestures as he attends a conference titled 'The Innovation Summit', in Milan, Italy, on July 3, 2017. Bizzarri is stepping down later this year, the latest shakeup to the luxury fashion brand and coming as part of a series of changes to the French conglomerate Kering that owns it. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
FILE - Gucci President Marco Bizzarri, gestures as he attends a conference titled 'The Innovation Summit', in Milan, Italy, on July 3, 2017. Bizzarri is stepping down later this year, the latest shakeup to the luxury fashion brand and coming as part of a series of changes to the French conglomerate Kering that owns it. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

The president and CEO of Gucci is stepping down later this year, the latest shakeup to the luxury fashion brand and coming as part of a series of changes to its parent company, the French conglomerate Kering.

Marco Bizzarri will depart the Italian design house in September after eight years at the helm, with Kering saying Tuesday that he "masterminded the execution of Gucci’s outstanding growth strategy since 2015." He was part of Kering's leadership for 18 years, The Associated Press reported.

Bizzarri will be replaced by Jean-François Palus, who is now Kering's managing director. Palus will be “tasked with strengthening Gucci’s teams and operations” as the brand “rebuilds influence and momentum,” according to the company's statement.

Historically, Gucci accounted for most of Kering’s profits, but it has been under some scrutiny after underperforming rivals.

Kering also said it was promoting Yves Saint Laurent President and CEO Francesca Bellettini as deputy CEO for brand development, managing all of its fashion houses, which also include Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Bottega Veneta.

Kering Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Duplaix will be another deputy CEO, handling operations and finance.

“We are building a more robust organization to fully capture the growth of the global luxury market," billionaire Kering Chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault said in a statement.

He said Bellettini drove revenue at Saint Laurent six times higher, while Palus, who's taking over at Gucci, “will now focus his energy on getting our largest asset in top shape.”

Pinault thanked the departing Bizzarri “for his spectacular contribution to the success of Gucci and of Kering.”

The changes open questions about the future of the larger fashion conglomerate and especially of Gucci, whose creative director of eight years, Alessandro Michele, left the brand last November, citing “different perspectives." He redefined Gucci’s codes with romanticism and gender-fluidity.

It marks a clean start at Gucci: Bizzarri arrived when Michele was promoted in 2015 in a complete revamp of the fashion house and now is leaving eight months after the creative director.

Recent Gucci collections have been designed by an in-house team, but the fashion world is awaiting the brand’s first collection by new creative director Sabato De Sarno, formerly part of the team at Valentino, to be unveiled in September.

 

 

 

 

 

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Fashion

H&M seeks to Lure US Shoppers as Fast-fashion Rivals Hike Prices Due to Tariffs

A woman is reflected next to the logo of the H&M fashion retailer in the newly opened Mall of Berlin shopping center in Berlin, Germany, in this September 25, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A woman is reflected next to the logo of the H&M fashion retailer in the newly opened Mall of Berlin shopping center in Berlin, Germany, in this September 25, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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H&M seeks to Lure US Shoppers as Fast-fashion Rivals Hike Prices Due to Tariffs

A woman is reflected next to the logo of the H&M fashion retailer in the newly opened Mall of Berlin shopping center in Berlin, Germany, in this September 25, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A woman is reflected next to the logo of the H&M fashion retailer in the newly opened Mall of Berlin shopping center in Berlin, Germany, in this September 25, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

H&M is trying to win shoppers from rivals in the United States by holding prices steady while Zara and Shein raise theirs, as US tariffs disrupt the fast-fashion industry that relies on imports of low-cost clothes from China, Vietnam, and other Asian countries.

H&M CEO Daniel Erver said on Thursday constantly changing tariffs had created turbulence, with the world's second-largest listed fashion retailer planning for multiple scenarios.

In an interview, he told Reuters that the challenge in the coming months is "to understand the consumer sentiment, which we see has dropped in the US due to all the turbulence... with the fact that some will be forced to raise prices more, and what (that creates) as an opportunity".

"Different competitors are acting in different ways, some more aggressively, some more cautiously," he added.

H&M has around 500 stores across the US, its second-largest market after Germany in terms of sales, accounting for 13% in 2024.

As US tariffs add to costs for retailers, relative price positioning is front of mind for executives, and the timing of price increases is key, with companies watching the competition closely to see who will blink first.

For H&M, which is trying to improve its profitability, sticking to current prices for longer carries risks as rising costs eat into margins.

But it also provides an opportunity to take market share from rivals.

"Maybe they are going to raise prices in the US... but just to a lesser extent as compared to competitors," Pareto Securities analyst Alexander Siljestrom said.

H&M can also mitigate the tariff impact by shifting production of US-bound clothes from China, which faces the highest tariff rate, to Bangladesh and elsewhere, he said.

Across categories including dresses, jeans, and shirts, the average US price at H&M's bigger competitor Zara was up by 28% this month from a year ago, according to data from price tracking firm EDITED, while prices at H&M in the US were on average down 3% year-on-year.

Zara prices were up across the board in June compared to January this year, EDITED found, while H&M has kept prices more or less stable, even though its chief financial officer Adam Karlsson said in March that price hikes were likely to offset tariffs.

Shein, which sends clothes direct to US shoppers from factories in China, has also had to raise prices and suffered weaker customer growth since Trump ended the "de minimis" duty-free treatment of low-value parcels.

SOURCING FROM FEWER, CLOSER SUPPLIERS

As it aims to improve its supply chain and get new styles to stores faster, H&M has spent the last 18 months consolidating its supplier base, Erver said, aiming to order more from a smaller number of big suppliers who also operate factories in multiple countries.

"We look at each individual order to decide what's the best sourcing market depending on the craftsmanship, the skills, the pricing situation, but also now more than ever the geopolitical situation with trade barriers," he told Reuters.

"That has led us in certain cases to take the decision to move things to different markets."

H&M also aims to be below full capacity with all of its suppliers, so it can easily increase production if needed when an item sells well, Erver said.

As part of its "nearshoring" strategy of sourcing products from suppliers closer to main consumer hubs, H&M is looking to increase its supplier base in markets like Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco for Europe, Erver said.

H&M will also add suppliers in Brazil, where it is opening its first stores in the second half, he added.