Discussion: The State of Kering

[Lola701]

They have already sold real estate, they are selling their entities. Next stage is brand.
I don’t understand their jewelry operations so maybe they should sell Dodo and others.

Regarding McQueen, I can see them selling it and Renzo Rosso buying it.

But for me, selling beauty was a stupid move. De Meo didn’t have that much option but prior to him, they didn’t even tried.

Doing niche fragrances for the brands wasn’t going to generate huge numbers anyway. If you want to sell fragrances, do it seriously!

Why not terminate him and get like anyone who can sew two pieces together in here ?

He is under contract and it may cost them more money to fire him now than to wait for his contract to end.
Gucci is a big house so they could afford to get rid of Sabato.
McQueen has downsized a lot since the pandemic.

 

[Nimsay]

I mean, Kering still hasn’t properly paid for Pedogate. We will decide when their pound of flesh has been accounted for.

 

[FashionPower]

Bottega Veneta, the only brand from the roster performing decently, has a perfume selection comprised of EIGHT niche fragrances.
What about focusing on just one with a big celeb endorsement. What was the last time we had Julianne Moore being the face of a beauty / perfume campaign? Dumb choices over dumb choices.
At Balenciaga they had Nicole, they have Michelle Yeoh, Naomi Watts, Kim Kardashian, Isabelle Huppert and none of them has been chosen to push one of the ten perfume releases...

 

[PDFSD]

Kering’s stock is up 30% since the beginning of the year. It started to climb after Luca de Meo’s appointment was announced. I guess it will take some time before we see the first effects of any changes he’s proposing.

constructed optimism because some people want their money out with higher value because more companies got a sudden stock price up.
he has more to learn than i thought before he started speaking out on his plans ...i guess the shinny people in fashion got to him already ...its so blinding :-)

 

[PDFSD]

Bottega Veneta, the only brand from the roster performing decently, has a perfume selection comprised of EIGHT niche fragrances.
What about focusing on just one with a big celeb endorsement. What was the last time we had Julianne Moore being the face of a beauty / perfume campaign? Dumb choices over dumb choices.
At Balenciaga they had Nicole, they have Michelle Yeoh, Naomi Watts, Kim Kardashian, Isabelle Huppert and none of them has been chosen to push one of the ten perfume releases...

because Blazy thought he was armani prive lol

 

[PDFSD]

With Burton leaving they lost all the customers who loved and enjoyed her sharp tailoring.
Mcqueen business was sustained by those very tacky "status symbol" platform sneakers, the skull head clutches / accessories and the tailoring.
Under McGirr the brand became insipid and just bland, no one is going to spend those figures for a C-list brand when you can get status symbol Dior and LV by splurging 20%...it's not like a Mcqueen jacket is 1k and a Dior one is 4k...
The funniest thing is that Mcqueen lost the tailoring when Sarah left but Givenchy didn't earn it when Sarah joined lol. Givenchy's current selection is abysmal.

she just stared givenchy menswear so lets see but for me the brand is dead both Mc Q and Givenchy

 

[PDFSD]

Luca de Meo at Kering: Revolutionizing Luxury with Speed and Customer Focus

Explore Luca de Meo's new rules to revive Kering: halving production times, customer-centric approach, and early positive results at Gucci. A paradigm shift from automotive to fashion.

www.nssmag.com

good luck lol with this markething industrialist manifesto also the 20-80 split is nothing new at all the big brand even at gucci.

the way its told is contra productive for luxury /high fashion they will see :-)

 

[style_expert]

Two possibilities involving Kering recently came up in a podcast with Lauren Sherman and Luca Solca:

• If L’Oréal buys the majority of Armani, they may choose to outsource the license for RTW/leather goods, and Kering was mentioned as a likely candidate (similar to the Estée Lauder–Zegna deal for Tom Ford).
• After Kering Beauté, it seems Kering is now also considering selling its eyewear division.

The latter would be another huge mistake. If I’m not mistaken, eyewear is one of the few areas performing well. I understand the need to raise cash to pay off some of that enormous debt, but again selling off one of your potentially strongest assets?

And finally, there was talk about them off-loading the McQueen brand, which honestly wouldn’t be surprising at this point.

 

[LadyJunon]

Two possibilities involving Kering recently came up in a podcast with Lauren Sherman and Luca Solca:

• If L’Oréal buys the majority of Armani, they may choose to outsource the license for RTW/leather goods, and Kering was mentioned as a likely candidate (similar to the Estée Lauder–Zegna deal for Tom Ford).
• After Kering Beauté, it seems Kering is now also considering selling its eyewear division.

The latter would be another huge mistake. If I’m not mistaken, eyewear is one of the few areas performing well. I understand the need to raise cash to pay off some of that enormous debt, but again selling off one of your potentially strongest assets?

And finally, there was talk about them off-loading the McQueen brand, which honestly wouldn’t be surprising at this point.

They should keep the eyewear and sell off McQueen. It's their second smallest brand and it doesn't seem to be doing well at all. It would do better under a smaller group that can handle a less mainstream image.

 

[FashionPower]

Smartest move for them, in my opinion, is to focus only on the top brands (YSL, Bottega, Gucci, Balenciaga) and sell everything else. I don't think they need jewelry maisons like Boucheron and Pomellato, are these even making margins? And yes, of course they need to keep the Eyewear division, they need to cash on merchandise especially when the prices and the audience is so polarized.
Let's see if the Demna effect will revive Gucci after Ancora's and Cantino's disastrous tenure, but they seriously need to get some decent bag designers at YSL.

 

[PDFSD]

Since 29th of september no ig posts for their 51 million followers a whole month are your so embarrassed you only show your new ads via targets banners? lol

Where is the strategy or is Demna still thinking about it with Bellatini in LA ?

what did he say again about oversized clothes and logo on it at Gucci lol

was it not: if people expect dme to do the same thing then they don't know his true artistic expression !!!????
end quote lol

 

[style_expert]

Smartest move for them, in my opinion, is to focus only on the top brands (YSL, Bottega, Gucci, Balenciaga) and sell everything else. I don't think they need jewelry maisons like Boucheron and Pomellato, are these even making margins? And yes, of course they need to keep the Eyewear division, they need to cash on merchandise especially when the prices and the audience is so polarized.
Let's see if the Demna effect will revive Gucci after Ancora's and Cantino's disastrous tenure, but they seriously need to get some decent bag designers at YSL.

Actually, they did mention (high) jewelry too in the podcast I mentioned, in that it's doing very well, especially compared to the rest of the sinking ship. Kering jewelry's brands even posted double digit growth in Q3 2025.
But their jewelry brands are relatively small to Richemont and LVMH of course.

Brioni and McQueen they need to get rid of.
Eyewear is such a relatively easy moneymaker with entry-level pricing and a huge market...why on earth would you sell it. They even produce the eyewear for Richemont's fashion brands.

As for Gucci....indeed there's very little to comment on. Apart from that first Milan outing for a very brief moment, no one is talking about it.

 

[FashionPower]

Since 29th of september no ig posts for their 51 million followers a whole month are your so embarrassed you only show your new ads via targets banners? lol

Where is the strategy or is Demna still thinking about it with Bellatini in LA ?

what did he say again about oversized clothes and logo on it at Gucci lol

was it not: if people expect dme to do the same thing then they don't know his true artistic expression !!!????
end quote lol
View attachment 1428037

A leather jacket with Gucci ribbon detail...groundbreaking.
I'm sorry but I would still prefer his Balenciaga menswear with swapped Gucci logos rather than this wannabe Tom Ford

 

[PDFSD]

i see same ancora steps of doom repeated:

- first show expression a waterdown not full expression of image remake.
- commercial products key focus money makers not aligned with any new image if there is one.
- communication is segregated creative directors expression is limited and commercial drops are not intune.
- voice of the brand is run by ceo promises not by emphasizing brand powers and new fresh creative direction etc more focus on new creative directors visible direction etc.
-lacma glitzy event that does not serve gucci bottom line while more pressing matters are begging for attention.
-gucci in standby mode from true excitement from new direction. lets wait and see next real show....


Excluding the Covid quarter (Q2 2020), Q3 2025 is Gucci’s 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟲.

Over the last 12 months, revenue reached €6.3bn — basically back to 2017 levels.

Headcount gucci staff doubled for example: 11.5k employees in 2017, versus 18.2k staff in 2025. but revenue did not.

 

[PDFSD]

puck.news​

A Kering Market Overreaction​

News and notes on market reactions to Luca de Meo’s first moves as Kering’s new C.E.O.

Luca de Meo also probably agrees with Solca: his whole mantra has been that Kering execs need to keep their head down and concentrate on the work, not the external reaction to these early moves. Photo: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Is There a Luca de Meo Bubble?​

On Fashion People this week, Bernstein analyst Luca Solca praised the initial strategy and tactics of new Kering C.E.O. Luca de Meo—from installing Francesca Bellettini at Gucci to offloading the company’s beauty unit to L’Oréal, etcetera.

He also suggested that de Meo may be inclined to sell more business units, including McQueen and Brioni. But while Solca seems extremely confident that de Meo is making the right decisions, he also thinks that the market is positively overreacting—perhaps enticed by a comeback narrative rather than more somber overall industry dynamics.

Kering’s stock is up 36 percent over the past year, mostly due to enthusiasm around de Meo’s appointment and, more recently, a positive Gucci quarter. In a note to investors on Thursday, Solca downgraded Kering to underperform. “Markets have preferred idiosyncratic self-help stories to plain vanilla-quality names, in the absence of clarity on global luxury goods demand prospects,” he said.
As usual, Solca is probably right. (This is not investment advice!) Kering—and Gucci, in particular—needs to show that its new strategy is working before he can recommend getting on board, investment-wise.

Anyway, my hunch is that de Meo also probably agrees with Solca; his whole mantra has been that Kering execs need to keep their head down and concentrate on the work, not the external reaction to these early moves. (Remember, he’s not even presenting his big plan until next year.) The real fruits of all this change won’t likely bear fruit at retail until the end of 2026 or early 2027.

Any serious sales boost prior to that is a gift, and de Meo understands that.