Case Study: Compagnie Financi�re Richemont SA '

This expansion demonstrates how the luxury industry is now run by massive corporations whose focus is only on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and most importantly, PROFITS! With growth and expansion, has come a decrease in quality and rarity. The luxury garments produced are mostly not handmade but are even outsourced to large factories in places such as China and Turkey. Also, to meet quarterly turnover projections, “designers churn(ed) out increasingly trendy collections of clothes, handbags, and shoes.” (Thomas, Pg. 246) With hundreds of new stores around the globe the surplus of designer labeled merchandise is immense hence, the proliferation of outlet malls.

The organisation’s goal is to achieve long-term value for its customers, shareholders and its employees through domestic and growth outside of Australia.

Their short term objectives would be increasing sales. The vision would centre around employee co-ownership with the happiness of partners as the ultimate purpose. The mission is the satisfaction of employees. Finally, the value would be to represent the best possible choice, as a result of providing the best quality, trust and customer service.

The case study Preserve the Luxury or Extend the Brand presents a fictional dilemma, based on a real company, faced by Chateau de Vallois, a prestigious and famous wine-producing estate in the Bordeaux region of France. De Vallois is a family owned and run business; part owners are Gaspard de Sauveterre - a 75-year old majority owner, and equal partial owners: Francois de Sauveterre – Gaspard’s son and the chateau’s CEO , and Claire de Valhubert – Garspard’s granddaughter. De Vallois had fallen into a slow decline under its previous owner, but Gaspard along with Jean-Paul Oudineaux, his estate manager, had restored the chateau and since then de Vallois had been steadily profitable

Overview: Universal Luxury Group is an international group of companies principally engaged in the production and sale of luxury goods including Food and Beverages, Fashion and Leather Goods, Perfumes and Cosmetics, Watches and Jewelry, and other business. Among them, this case is handling Perfumes and Cosmetics business group that accounts for EUR 2,231M, 19% of sales revenue.

Most luxury brands have been family-owned or -controlled and, consequently, were single-brand firms for the most part. However, mergers and acquisitions have been growing in the industry, with LVMH leading the way. Our strategic recommendation is to follow LVMH’s lead and acquire a multitude of diverse companies to build the Gucci portfolio.

It is hard to imagine that after the financial crisis swept across Europe, many great transitional enterprises had to face collapse and bankrupt while the luxury goods industry become more prosperous. Recently, the French luxury goods group LVMH announced their recent business condition. The volume of the first week in October had incredibly increased by 12% the previous week. The Hermes Corporation also said that in order to meet the increasing number of market demand, it would open 15 branch stores in the latter half of the year. These aroused some fierce debates, the public held a skeptical opinion towards the questions: How can the luxury companies maintain their positions? Why didn’t they strike down by financial crisis?

Louis Vuitton is considered under the luxury goods industry. The luxury goods industry is a high profitable industry with low outside threat. There are only few large players in the industry and they server to the wealthiest people in the world. The luxury companies have high power to control the price so they have ability to grow sustainably.

Elie Saab ,when first entered the Market with a workshop in Beirut ,were known as a haute couture brand. That is, manufacturing custom clothes ordered by a specific customer with a high quality and expensive fabric , mostly targeting celebrities. After a while due to the changing trends across the world, they launched first RTW collection in Milan focused on the idea of affordable luxury brand that did not require the customized service. Another product line, wedding dresses were classified neither Haute couture nor RTW. They were sold through Boutiques. Another step for brand’s product strategy was to expand product variety to fragrances and accessories and signed a cosmetic license contract. Aside from fashion industry, Elie Saab formed alliances to develop signature hotels. Designing super yacht which are distinctive examples of luxury was included in the Business model.

Key managers that can run each business independently but with a group vision are also part of the equation. Additionally the luxury industry is strongly dependent on tourism which is influenced by economy trends. The 9-11 events and the global economy slowdown have had a great impact on the industry. Finally huge investments were done to win strategic position, having an important impact on revenues. Appendix 5 is an example of the proportion of cost and impact on revenues and the stock performance.

The firm does not have to deal with the pressure of shareholders who require short term benefits in order to show a profit from their investments through the redistribution of dividends. On the contrary, Rolex got the opportunity to reinvest the benefits in the company to improve distribution and after-sale services and to increase research and development. Rolex employs about 6000 people worldwide of whom 3300 employees are based in Geneva, setting Rolex as one of the main employers and tax payers of Geneva. They are selling around 750000 watches each year for an estimated turnover included between 2.5 and 3 billions, Rolex is the first brand of the luxury watch industry in term of sales (factory price). Moreover, Rolex possesses 22 subsidiaries companies spread all over the

Roberts, 2016). The truth is that this is not the first time that the fashion megahouse

LVMH’s brand portfolio is a catalogue of the finest things money can buy. Arnault said, “A Star brand is timeless, modern, fast growing and highly profitable.”[iii] LVMH has positioned its brands strongly in the luxury segment offering more than 50 different brands under their five core competencies. LVMH has been successful through all of their various brands in their portfolio giving them each their independence and creativity. “LVMH is well known for leaving much operational and marketing freedom to the various brands it owns.”[iv] “LVMH has done an excellent job of brand positioning, says Ben Cavender, senior analyst at China Market Research Group. It has succeeded in securing the particularly enviable position of gaining a following among the top percentage of China’s wealthy. As the financial crisis stretches on, LVMH customers in China still have money to spend.[v] “LVMH’s brand imaging, which relies heavily on pushing its European heritage, is so successful that it has benefited other brands by proxy, says Paul French, one of the founders of Access Asia, a group dedicated to tracking regional consumer and marketing trends. “Everyone hangs on the coattails of Louis Vuitton’s brand imaging in China.”[vi]

What is interesting in this market is that there are no clear leaders. Even though each company’s goal is to make the more profit as possible, we can’t define any leader since they have different strategies and objectives.8 [ (Tower) ] For example, Patek Philippe’s core ideology is to have the most prestigious brand and to make the most expensive watch as possible, and target the most prestigious people which is a really niche market. In comparison, Rolex’s purpose is to be a more accessible luxury brand and make the most sales as possible. It is difficult to compare them in terms of success, Rolex sells more but Patek has a much higher reputation.

1) Haute Couture – highest end, most exclusive, custom for wealthiest (Prada, Burberry, Hermes, Gucci, Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Louis