Discussion: The State of Kering

[callmejaeden]

At this point i'm ready for the launch of the first Gucci car.

 

[Frederic01]

At this point i'm ready for the launch of the first Gucci car.

They already had one under Frida and it was in collaboration with Fiat! I believe they also did boats lmao!


DAZED & CONFUSED

 

[Frederic01]

This is so relevant to what is going on now at Kering by the way!


BOF

 

[style_expert]

It was pretty interesting, indeed.

I think that when it comes to pricing, this is where Kering once again makes a lot of mistakes. Even when they have a hit brand or product, they usually have no strategy in place to sustain or build on that momentum.
In the magic triangle between price, product, and perceived ‘inherent’ brand image/value, they usually get only one, or at best two, factors right.

I was just looking at the Gucci site, and they have a lot of handbags in the €1,500–€2,500 range (and even below €1,500). But the offering looks cheap, far too broad, and too generic to appeal even to what we now call the mid-range customer, who is more educated than before and very aware of what else is on the market.

At Kering, they need to learn to be humble and accept that Gucci is not Vuitton or Dior, and Bottega Veneta is not Hermès or Chanel. They don’t need to pretend and certainly shouldn’t price as if they are.
There are far more opportunities in this market if they embrace realistic pricing below the true top-end brands/ market leaders. I think at Gucci at least they're already going into this direction when it comes to pricing. At Bottega I also noticed some lower priced items in the new collections...(lower priced in relative terms of course)

And alongside realistic pricing (which shouldn’t be difficult to implement), they still need to deliver great, desirable products…which remains a main challenge

 

[PDFSD]

They already had one under Frida and it was in collaboration with Fiat! I believe they also did boats lmao!

View attachment 1439786
DAZED & CONFUSED

and gucci cadillac in the 70s

 

[PDFSD]

BOF​

Kering to Buy Jewellery Producer Raselli Franco​

The 20 percent stake will be further expanded to full ownership by 2032, Kering said in a statement.

CEO Luca de Meo said the move would accelerate growth in Kering's jewellery segment.

18 December 2025

French luxury group Kering will buy family-owned jewellery producer Raselli Franco Group, it said on Thursday, announcing an initial €115 million ($134.76 million) investment into the business.

The 20 percent stake will be further expanded to full ownership by 2032, Kering said in a statement.

The acquisition, the first made by the highly indebted luxury group under new chief executive Luca de Meo, highlights the group’s efforts to expand into categories less exposed to the business cycles of the fashion industry.

De Meo said the move would secure “critical manufacturing capabilities” and accelerate growth in the jewellery segment, where Kering owns brands including Boucheron and Pomellato.

 

[style_expert]

I had to google Raselli Franco…
Such intense and bold moves by De Meo in such a short period of time. I hope he knows what he’s doing!
It’s true that (high) jewelry is still doing well, but in this area there’s certainly no shortage of competition.

They also sold major NY real estate last week:
Kering sells majority stake in New York property in $900 million deal

The transaction values the property at $900 million, below the $963 million Kering paid for the building in 2024.

They made such idiotic decisions in the past couple of years with the start of the beauty division and overpriced acquisition of Creed before licensing it all out again, and now the real estate selling at loss...

 

[rowjellies]

Are they making his a spokesperson for the company now…

 

[Frederic01]

Besides the obvious cringe factor, my eyes go straight to that suit jacket that is not tailored properly to him. It’s too short in the waist, it’s too tight, and also too cropped, it looks ridiculous. Don’t get me started on that pocket square. And we are supposed to trust this person to steer Kering?! For goodness sake he can’t even attire himself in a decent suit.

Anyway, it is clear as day, just from watching that video, Mr. Renault Cars has no idea what he is doing. Not just on a PR level but on an instinctual level too. LMAO good luck Kering!

And hahahahaha side note: Sabato’s Ancora Red is still going strong I see! Amazing!

 

[jeanclaude]

He thinks he is a movie star...this song came to my mind immediatly:

 

[Melancholybaby]

Are they making his a spokesperson for the company now…

Tell me you can't read the room without telling me. Who asked for this?

 

[justpassingthrough]

Revisited that Luca de Mayonnaise video on IG & see that Peter Dundas is now following him. Am I wrong to think that’s kind of odd?

 

[PDFSD]

Revisited that Luca de Mayonnaise video on IG & see that Peter Dundas is now following him. Am I wrong to think that’s kind of odd?

maybe they had meeting and since then he is following him

 

[PDFSD]

WWD What to Watch: Luca de Meo to Unveil His Strategic Plan for Kering​

Having remedied the debt crisis, the former automotive executive must turn his talents to swift brand turnarounds.
ByMILES SOCHA JANUARY 5, 2026, 12:01AM

Luca de Meo COURTESY OF KERING

Automotive executive Luca de Meo has brought his high-octane personality, fresh perspectives and a few decisive maneuvers since becoming chief executive officer of ailing French luxury group Kering last September.

This spring — date still TBD — the turnaround expert will unveil a strategic plan engineered to transform Kering into a serious challenger in a lackluster luxury market grappling with consumer fatigue, so-called “greedflation” and economic woes.

Equity analysts applaud what they’ve seen so far from the Italian executive.

“Energy, speed, clarity, focus seem to have improved materially,” said Luca Solca, managing director of luxury goods at Bernstein. “Yet the issue of making Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, McQueen and Brioni relevant again is a major work in progress.

“Before even looking at whether the right designers are in place, I would wonder if the right visions and strategies have been identified,” Solca mused.

In his estimation, Gucci “has gone nowhere” during its attempt at being a quieter luxury brand. “At the same time, moving Saint Laurent closer to aspirational consumers is causing a major backlash, not to mention the dominant focus of McQueen on sneakers, which has left the brand as the Wile E. Coyote once the road is no longer beneath it. What are the plans to make these brands relevant again?”

When HSBC upgraded Kering last September, it said the group would need to deliver short term on processes, people and portfolio, “and de Meo has convincingly started to deliver on all three,” said HSBC luxury analyst Erwan Rambourg. “Processes implies greater speed, rewarding competence rather than tenure or ‘friends and family’ and has come with a very visible sense of urgency, ambition and hunger.


“The group has quickly addressed the stress on debt and started to fix some problematic assets,” Rambourg continued. “The little we have seen from the new management team gives an impression of drive, focus and common-sensical approaches.”
To be sure, de Meo entered Kering and hit the ground running.
“He has fixed the balance sheet problems by postponing the Valentino deal and moving beauty to a first-class license with L’Oréal,” Solca enumerated. “I think his decision to streamline senior responsibilities — eliminating the two [deputy] CEO roles and making [Francesca] Bellettini responsible for Gucci — were timely and appropriate. Now the task of reigniting consumer interest for the core brands may take a bit longer.”
According to HSBC’s Rambourg, de Meo’s strategic plan is “essential,” especially given “years of missteps.”
“But at the end of the day, the only thing that counts is detailing a credible plan for Gucci’s revival,” he said.

A look from Gucci’s pre-fall 2026 collection. Courtesy of Gucci
Previously CEO of French car giant Renault Group, de Meo has already recruited several of his former coworkers, including HR specialist Thomas Cuntz as global talent development and people engagement head and Giovanni Perosino as senior vice president, marketing, at Gucci.
It is understood de Meo turned to the automotive talent pool partly because C-suite executives are more readily available there than ones from fashion and luxury, who typically have lengthy noncompete clauses, and they come from functions that are probably more advanced in the car industry than fashion.


What’s more, he knows the executives and their abilities from close proximity and over years — not gleaned from a one-hour job interview. It is understood he also values their outsider perspectives as a kind of “diversity,” given that the fashion industry mostly recruits from within.
De Meo spent five years leading Renault and boasts a total of 30 years in the sector at brands including Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Toyota, Volkswagen and Seat.
While he may be new to fashion, he’s dealt with luxury before since an estimated 63 percent of all luxury spending is ploughed into luxury cars. De Meo has been a board member of Lamborghini, and helped it create the Urus, its first SUV, by employing mass-market standards of production to create a reliable, comfortable and yet still dynamic vehicle.
To be sure, de Meo brings industrial insights galore, given that car manufacturing is among the most complex of all consumer products, involving some 30,000 components per vehicle.
He’s also accustomed to crises, and could bring to Kering new processes, integrated technologies and innovations that will give it a leg up in a slow-growth period for fashion and luxury.
In November, de Meo dispatched a memo to all Kering employees, details of which were leaked to the press and reported in several newspapers and wire services, including a timeline giving the group 18 months to resize operations and return all brands to growth. The “ReconKering” plan also calls for a resizing of its retail network.


It is understood the executive saw the missive as a statement of intent, a way to instill urgency and achieve a “collective conscience” around the enormous task ahead.
Behind the scenes, he has been clarifying the positioning of each brand, anointing Balenciaga with the shorthand of “urban cool,” for example, and bringing together creative directors and C-suite executives from logistics, finance and supply chain for informal get-togethers and more structured powwows.
While de Meo spied an immediate need to rein in fixed costs and review capital allocations at the luxury conglomerate, he is said to have discovered a lot of potential to transform Kering from being a laggard into a serious challenger to its rivals LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Richemont and Prada Group.
He is said to relish being in “attack mode” and motivated to make Kering a super-creative company.
Among items on his to-do list are making its marquee houses less dependent on fashion cycles, diversifying its categories to make the group more resilient, and ramping up innovation, integrating cutting-edge technologies like AI as a tool.
According to Oliver Chen, senior research analyst at TD Cowen, key focus areas for investors include “margin outlook, Gucci/YSL strategy, store rationalization, inventory discipline, the L’Oréal beauty partnership, and plans to reengage aspirational customers amid shifting industry trends and a softer Chinese consumer behavior, the leverage ratio of the company, and portfolio opportunities and rationalization.”


Among Chen’s main concerns for Kering are “execution risk given slowing Gucci growth and the challenge of revitalizing aspirational demand, balancing execution across all price points at Gucci including entry, middle and higher price points; negative trends at Gucci, the existing financial leverage ratio” and questions about the brand portfolio.
“Favorable factors to consider with new management include new management’s fresh perspective, history of operational discipline and added flexibility/speed,” he added.
Rambourg cited three areas that give him pause.
“First, the retail footprint is too big both in terms of number of units, but importantly in terms of selling surface in existing units and there is no quick fix as leases run for a number of years,” he said. “Second, we see evidence of change coming at Gucci, but it’s not as if the sector was standing still and the creative frenzy elsewhere can make the rebirth of Gucci more complicated.”
Finally, Rambourg questioned how the corporate culture might evolve, and how long it will take to stabilize.
“We think it is likely a good idea to poach execs from the autos sector and others, but there might be a choppy transition from old to next,” he said.

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