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Bernard Arnault’s son Frédéric has been appointed chief executive of LVMH’s watches unit, a role he says will result in “working more closely” with his billionaire father.
The 29-year-old’s promotion will be closely watched as a possible sign of succession preparations and who is up or down among the five Arnault children expected to one day succeed the French luxury group’s 74-year- old founder.
Frédéric, who is Arnault’s fourth-youngest child, will start next week and will oversee brands TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith. The position means he will start spending more time in Paris, he said in an interview.
“I will still be very committed to watches, but I will be working more closely with him on strategic projects,” he told the Financial Times.
“Succession is not a topic we think about today. It will come in due time. And he’s a master of timing,” he added, referring to his father.
He joined TAG Heuer, which is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, in 2017, taking over as chief executive three years later with a mandate to “elevate the product and the brand”, he said, in order to move its positioning to a luxury price point.
Arnault’s children all work in different roles within the world’s largest luxury group, learning about the business from senior executives they are paired with as mentors. Top executives have insisted a family successor is not guaranteed.
Delphine, 48, took over as chief executive of Dior last year and sits on the group’s board. Antoine, 46, recently stepped back from his role as chief executive at leather goods brand Berluti to head family holding company Christian Dior SE, in addition to being the group’s head of image and sustainability.
Alexandre, 31, is at US jeweller Tiffany & Co, while Jean, 25, runs watchmaking at fashion and leather goods house Louis Vuitton.
LVMH entered watchmaking in 1999, buying TAG Heuer and Zenith. While fashion and leather goods remain the biggest contributor to the group’s €79bn in revenues in 2022, hard luxury, which includes watches and jewellery, is becoming increasingly important — particularly since the company bought Tiffany in 2021.
Sales at the group’s watches and jewellery division grew by 5 per cent to €7.9bn in the first nine months of last year, one of the group’s slower- growing divisions as the uncertain economic outlook hurt demand for luxury goods after a multiyear boom.
Frédéric Arnault said in the interview that the three brands he will lead had sales of about SFr1.6bn (£1.5bn) last year.
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