LVMH's Dior Recruits Miu Miu CEO as Managing Director

FILE PHOTO: A logo of fashion house Dior is seen outside a shop in Paris, France, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A logo of fashion house Dior is seen outside a shop in Paris, France, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo
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LVMH's Dior Recruits Miu Miu CEO as Managing Director

FILE PHOTO: A logo of fashion house Dior is seen outside a shop in Paris, France, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A logo of fashion house Dior is seen outside a shop in Paris, France, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo

Christian Dior Couture has recruited Benedetta Petruzzo, the CEO of Prada's fast growing Miu Miu label, as its managing director, the LVMH-owned brand said on Tuesday.
The move comes over a year and a half after Delphine Arnault, the eldest child of LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, took the helm at Dior and as it grapples with the fallout of a judicial probe in Italy into working conditions at subcontractors.
Petruzzo will be responsible for product teams at Dior, including supply chain teams, reporting to Delphine Arnault, LVMH said on LinkedIn. Her recruitment, effective Oct. 15, was first reported by trade publication WWD, according to Reuters.
Petruzzo replaces Charles Delapalme, a rising star at LVMH who has also held prominent positions at the group's Fendi and Louis Vuitton labels. "Important new responsibilities" for Delapalme will be announced at a later date, LVMH said.
Petruzzo, a former Bain consultant, worked at Kering's eyewear business for five years before joining Prada as general manager of Miu Miu in February 2020.
Prada has outshone luxury rivals during the recent downturn, including in China, where shoppers are pulling back on high end purchases amid a property crisis. It has seen soaring growth at Miu Miu, whose creative director is Miuccia Prada.
LVMH in July pledged to speed up its supply chain strategy and strengthen audits and controls while increasing control over production at Dior, LVMH's second largest label after Louis Vuitton, following the probe in Italy, made public in June.
That investigation prompted Italy's competition authority to look into whether fashion labels Armani and Dior had misled consumers, while Europe's top asset manager Amundi and other investors asked LVMH to take stronger steps to monitor its suppliers' treatment of workers.
All five of Bernard Arnault's children hold important management positions in the sprawling luxury empire.



Chanel to Keep Investing Despite Choppy Luxury Market

A man looks at a Chanel shop window at Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Switzerland April 30, 2025. (Reuters)
A man looks at a Chanel shop window at Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Switzerland April 30, 2025. (Reuters)
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Chanel to Keep Investing Despite Choppy Luxury Market

A man looks at a Chanel shop window at Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Switzerland April 30, 2025. (Reuters)
A man looks at a Chanel shop window at Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Switzerland April 30, 2025. (Reuters)

French luxury group Chanel will continue to invest heavily this year, drawing on its deep pockets as other sector players pull back, with plans for new stores in China and the United States, despite volatility in both markets, it said on Tuesday.

"We continue to navigate in very uncertain times," group finance chief Philippe Blondiaux told Reuters.

He flagged "positive signs of stabilization" in China and Hong Kong, but said it was still "too early to say" the region had turned a corner, while ongoing talks on tariffs were causing "a lot of uncertainty."

Despite a 4.3% drop in sales last year, the French label, known for its double C logo, quilted leather handbags and No. 5 perfume, said it planned to stick to last year's capital spending level of $1.8 billion, which was a 43% increase from the previous year. It will also invest $600 million in supply chains as it internalizes production, including buying shares in a silk supplier in France and a jewellery maker in Italy.

Chanel sales for the year ending December 31 reached $18.7 billion, weighed down by a slump in China, while operating profit fell 30%.

Chanel plans to add 48 stores this year, nearly half in the US and China, as well as in Mexico, India and Canada. Only six of the new outlets will be fashion stores.

"Macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility are unquestionably challenging for business and we've seen these conditions have an impact on sales in some markets," said global CEO Leena Nair.

Chanel, which increased prices by around 3% last year to keep up with inflation, may raise them further this year, in line with inflation, Blondiaux said. Higher gold prices may lead to higher price increases for the jewellery range, he added.

Nair said that new creative director Matthieu Blazy, who was named in December to replace Virginie Viard, would not introduce menswear - a topic of recurrent speculation.

Blazy's appointment comes amid a broad designer reshuffle across the industry, with new names at top brands including Gucci, Dior, Balenciaga and Valentino, as executives seek to reignite sales growth.

Chanel is owned by French billionaire brothers Alain Wertheimer and Gerard Wertheimer.

Last year, sales at LVMH, the world's biggest luxury group, rose 1%, with US and European markets helping to offset a slump in Asia, while Hermes, which has outpaced rivals, posted nearly 15% growth, with growth in all regions, including Asia.

Luxury groups had hoped the US market would help lift the sector out of a slump this year, but uncertainty over tariffs has dashed hopes for a quick bounce-back, with consultancy Bain lowering its sector sales forecast to a likely fall of between 2% and 5% this year.