LVMH’s management reshuffle continues.
Long-time group CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony has been appointed CEO of Moët Hennessy, the luxury conglomerate’s wines and spirits division, replacing Philippe Schaus. Alexandre Arnault, the second son of Bernard Arnault and currently executive vice president of product, communications and industrial at Tiffany, will become deputy CEO of the division, which includes champagne houses like Moët Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Ruinart, as well as cognac brand Hennessy. Their appointments are effective 1 February, LVMH said in a statement on Thursday.
Charles Delapalme, who was managing director of Dior until Benedetta Petruzzo took up the role, has been appointed CEO of Hennessy. He will succeed Laurent Boillot, whose new responsibilities will be announced at a later date.
Arnault, 32, took up the Tiffany role in 2021 after four years as CEO of luggage brand Rimowa. He was appointed to the LVMH executive committee in April 2024, alongside his younger brother Frédéric, bulking up the Arnault family’s representation on the board.
They are taking over Moët Hennessy in tough times and will have to turn the division around. LVMH’s wine and spirits sales slipped 8 per cent in the first nine months of 2024 to €4.2 billion. Revenue was down 7 per cent in the third quarter, a sharper decline than for the group as a whole, which was down 3 per cent. LVMH cited “an ongoing normalisation of post-Covid demand” for champagne and “a weak local demand in the Chinese markets” for cognac in its third quarter earnings statement. Another cause for concern is the possibility of tariffs being imposed by the US on luxury alcohol following the election of Donald Trump.
They will also navigate a wider decline in drinking, an underlying trend especially among younger generations. Moët Hennessy announced in early October that it has taken a minority investment in French Bloom, a premium alcohol-free sparkling wine co-founded by friends Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger and and Constance Jablonski, alongside Maggie’s husband Rodolphe Frerejean-Taittinger.
Moët Hennessy is also betting on a mix of innovation and celebrity to help boost sales. This autumn, it partnered with Beyoncé to launch a new whisky called SirDavis — the first spirits brand developed entirely internally by Moët Hennessy in the US, according to a statement at the time. It came after Moët Hennessy took a 50 per cent stake in Jay-Z‘s champagne brand Armand de Brignac in 2021.
Also as part of the reshuffle announced today, Maud Alvarez-Pereyre was appointed executive vice president of human resources at LVMH and a member of the executive committee, effective 1 December, following the departure of Chantal Gaemperle. “After leading the LVMH human resources and synergies department for more than 17 years, and creating a talent development and CSR policy to support the group’s growth, Chantal Gaemperle is leaving the group to pursue new projects,” the group said in a separate statement. Guillaume Motte, president and CEO of Sephora, will also become a member of the executive committee.
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