LVMH announced the new management team of Tiffany & Co. Anthony Ledru, previously Executive Vice President, Global Commercial Activities at Louis Vuitton and formerly Senior Vice President of North America at Tiffany, becomes Chief Executive Officer of Tiffany. Alexandre Arnault becomes Executive Vice President, Product and Communications of Tiffany. And Michael Burke, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Louis Vuitton, will become Chairman of Tiffany Board of Directors. The jewelry brand was bought by the group LVMH, last year, in a historical transaction.
Tiffany & Co. was bought in 2020 by the LVMH group. The transaction was one that wrote history and it is still the biggest agreement ever made in the industry. The deal was approved in December and there were a lot of back and forth actions, until it was agreed upon. After the French company obtained a small discount, LVMH acquired the legendary Tiffany & Co. for $16 billion.
Anthony Ledru, the new CEO of Tiffany & Co.
Anthony Ledru will be appointed the new Chief Executive Officer of the jewelry brand. He previously hold the position as the Executive Vice President, Global Commercial Activities at Louis Vuitton and formerly Senior Vice President of North America at Tiffany. He has been working for LVMH for six years. Anthony Ledru is also a “connoisseur” of jewelry, having worked for Harry Winston and Richemont’s Cartier in the USA and Canada, before LVMH.
Alexandre Arnault, the new Executive Vice-President of Tifanny & Co.
Together with Anthony Ledru, Alexandre Arnault will be part of the management team. LVMH tweeted today that Alexandre Arnault will become Executive Vice President, Product and Communications of Tiffany. Previously, he hold a key position as the CEO of Rimowa, the high-quality suitcase brand of LVMH group. He hold this position for four years. Alexandre is the son of Bernard Arnault, the billionaire founder of LVMH conglomerate.
The acquisition was confirmed today by LVMH and it will definitely transform LVMH‘s Watches and Jewelry division, as it stated on Twitter. Bernard Arnault also declared that: “I am pleased to welcome Tiffany and all their talented employees in our Group. Tiffany is an iconic brand and a quintessential emblem of the global jewelry sector. We are committed to supporting Tiffany, a brand that is synonymous with love and whose Blue Box is revered around the world, with the same dedication and passion that we have applied to each of our prestigious Maisons over the years.“
The former CEO of Tiffany, Alessandro Bogliolo, will remain with the company to facilitate the transition until January 22, 2021, after which he will depart the company. The same goes for Reed Krakoff, Chief Artistic Director, and Daniella Vitale, Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer of Tiffany.
LVMH, the second biggest company in Europe after Nestle
The conglomerate has a market share of $313 billion, as Bloomberg states. Last year, its shares gained 23% and it is now the second biggest company in the whole Europe, after Nestle SA. 2021 will be quite a challenging year for most of luxury brands, as the coronavirus restrictions closed a lot of stores and made travel nearly impossible. Most of the brands are focusing on the Asian market more, especially China, because the luxury market registered an increase at the end of 2020 and it is believed they would recover faster than European market.
