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Richemont has appointed Nicolas Bos, currently chief executive of Van Cleef Arpels, as group CEO, effective from 1 June — reinstating the role after eight years.
“I’m not stepping back,” said Johann Rupert, chairman of Richemont, during a media call on Friday. “But I’m asking Nicolas to assume some of the direct line reporting that I used to have.” Rupert said the idea of bringing back a full group CEO role had been in discussion for years, but Covid was “the time for a war cabinet, not the time for a traditional structure”.
Jérôme Lambert, whose current title is Richemont CEO — but with a narrower scope, as not all of the brand CEOs report into him — will remain on the board as chief operating officer, reporting to Bos. Regarding Bos’s successor as Van Cleef Arpels CEO, Rupert said: “Nicolas has identified an individual but I don’t want to comment further.”
Bos steps into the role at a challenging time for luxury, which is experiencing a global slowdown and headwinds in key markets like China. The announcement coincided with the release of Richemont’s fiscal-year earnings, revealing a sales increase of 8 per cent year-on-year at constant exchange rates to €20.6 billion in the year ending 31 March 2024 (up 3 per cent at actual rates). Sales were up 2 per cent in the fourth quarter, at constant rates, and down 1 per cent at actual rates.
By comparison, LVMH posted sales up 3 per cent during the last quarter, Kering fell 10 per cent, Hermès grew 17 per cent, the Moncler brand up 20 per cent, and Prada group was up 16 per cent.
Sales at Richemont’s jewellery maisons, which includes Cartier, Van Cleef Arpels and Buccellati, continued to outperform other divisions, growing 3 per cent in Q4; while sales at specialist watchmakers, which houses brands like Vacheron Constantin and Piaget, were down 1 per cent. ‘Other’ businesses, including fashion and accessories brands Chloé and Alaïa, was flat. Earlier this month, Richemont bolstered its jewellery portfolio with the acquisition of Italian jewellery brand Vhernier.
By geography, Japan, the Middle East and Americas led the growth for Richemont in Q4 (up 41 per cent, 15 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively), while Europe rose 7 per cent and Asia Pacific decreased 12 per cent.
Thomas Chauvet, head of luxury goods equity research at Citi, called the results “a mixed bag”, noting “weaker fourth-quarter jewellery maisons offset by specialist watchmakers and fashion brands not as bad as feared, weakening Asia ex-Japan sales but accelerating growth in the US, Europe, Japan and the Middle East”.
“The jewellery maisons division is still ahead of the LVMH fashion and leather goods division, which is seen as a proxy for the sector,” wrote Luca Solca, managing director of luxury goods at Bernstein. Richemont shares rose 5.5 per cent in midday trading.
Analysts said they expect single-digit growth in the 2025 year. “For now, we expect consensus financial year 2025 group sales of €21.7 billion, up 6 per cent,” wrote Citi’s Chauvet. Rupert was stoic about the luxury slowdown, particularly in China. “The lockdown [in China] left a big scar and people are recovering from it. When the feel-good factor returns, the numbers will go up,” he said. “I am not at all gloomy.”
Richemont is looking to sell loss-making Yoox Net-a-Porter, after the deal with Farfetch fell through. Richemont CFO Burkhart Grund said the process is ongoing and the company will share more on progress later this year.
Asked about the impact of the Paris Olympics, Cartier chief executive Cyrille Vigneron told journalists: “What we saw in Europe for the 2012 London Olympics, there was a lot of traffic but some of the luxury customers preferred to go somewhere else… Paris will probably be slow and other cities, whether London, Milan or Barcelona, probably will have more people at that time.” Bos added: “So probably not the right time to organise a very important high jewellery celebration in Paris but we’ll keep the stores open and be very happy to welcome sports amateurs.”
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