Kering (company)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kering

logo
legal form Société Anonyme
ISIN FR0000121485
founding 1963
Seat Paris , FranceFranceFrance 
management François-Henri Pinault
Number of employees 34,697
sales 11.58 billion euros (2015)
Branch Luxury and consumer goods
Website www.kering.com
As of December 31, 2015

Kering ([ kɛːʁiŋ ] until 2013: PPR SA ) is a French , global fashion - and accessories - Group .

The Paris- based company was founded in 1963 by the French entrepreneur François Pinault and was run by him until March 2005; then his son François-Henri Pinault took over the management. As a result of numerous company takeovers , Kering now includes international fashion, sports and accessories brands as well as well-known jewelry and watch manufacturers in the upper segment.

history

The Pinault Group was founded in 1963 by François Pinault in the wood and building materials industry. In 1988 the company was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange . With the acquisition of the furniture company Conforama in 1991, Pinault began diversifying into retail . At the latest with the takeover of the French retail group Printemps in 1992 and the mail order company La Redoute in 1994 as well as the associated establishment of the Pinault-Printemps-Redoute group ( simplified to PPR in 2005 ), the owners pursued the orientation of the entire group away from wood - and construction, to retail. In 1994 Pinault-Printemps-Redoute took over the French retail group Fnac , which was sold again in 2013.

In March 1999, PPR acquired a 40% stake in Gucci . The competitor LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton had already bought a 34% stake in Gucci in early 1999 . As a result of strategic capital measures by Gucci SpA , LVMH's stake was diluted to 20%. The PPR and LVMH finally waged a two-year takeover battle for Gucci, which had to be tried several times in court. At the end of 2001 PPR bought the LVMH shares in Gucci and thus held over 53% of the shares in the Italian luxury goods company.

As a result, PPR founded a luxury division with the Gucci Group with various brands in the premium segment. The acquisition of Yves Saint Laurent (fashion and cosmetics) and the shoe brand Sergio Rossi by Gucci Group took place even in 1999. In 2000 came the purchase of jewelery - and watch -Herstellers Boucheron . The cosmetics division of the Yves Saint Laurent brand was finally separated into YSL Beauté . In 2001, the former Chloé designer Stella McCartney launched his own fashion brand through a PPR investment of 50% of the shares in the company . At the same time, PPR acquired a 51% stake in the Alexander McQueen brand . In 2004, as a result of a public takeover bid, PPR increased its equity stake in the Gucci Group to 99.4%.

The PPR logo until June 18, 2013

In 2006, PPR began withdrawing from the retail sector with the sale of 51% of the shares in Printemps to the real estate and infrastructure division of Deutsche Bank called RREEF and to the Borletti Group, the remaining shares were sold the following year. In 2007 the company used the acquisition of the majority of Puma (company) (and thus its subsidiary since 2001, Tretorn Sweden ) to establish itself in the sports segment. As a result, the group was divided into the areas of Luxury and Sport & Lifestyle . The latter was expanded with the acquisition of American golf and streetwear brands such as Cobra Golf (2010), Volcom (2011) and Electric (2011). In 2008, PPR sold the YSL Beauté cosmetics division to the French L'Oréal group, which has since held the cosmetics licenses for various Kering brands.

PPR pursued the expansion of the luxury segment in 2011 with the takeover of the Sowind Group , the parent company of the Swiss watch manufacturers Girard-Perregaux and JEANRICHARD . At the same time, the furniture chain Conforama was sold and the Gucci Group was dissolved within PPR. The luxury brands formerly bundled in the Gucci Group are now part of the overall group as brands of equal value alongside the Gucci brand . In 2012, the takeover of the Italian men's outfitter Brioni and the majority stake in the Chinese jeweler Qeelin followed. The Italian jewelry brands Pomellato and DoDo were added to the brand portfolio in 2013.

The mail order company La Redoute , which was the core of the group for a long time, was outsourced with other retail activities to the Redcats Group (from REDoute CATalogues ). With around 20,000 employees, Redcats Holding was the world's third largest group in the international mail order business; In addition to La Redoute u. a. Bernard SA, Cyrillus, La Maison de Valerie, Movitex, Vertbaudet and Ellos in Scandinavia and Brylane in the USA. In view of increasing competition from online trading and increasing losses in catalog sales, the Redcats group restructured and sold it step by step - in 2014, La Redoute was sold for a symbolic euro to a management team led by Nathalie Balla and Eric Courteille.

The group , renamed Kering in 2013, took over a 51% majority stake in the British fashion brand Christopher Kane in early 2013 and signed a partnership with the New York designer Joseph Altuzarra . The spin-off from Fnac was completed in mid-2013 when Kering took the company public. In December, Kering announced a joint venture with the chief designer of the Kering brand Bottega Veneta , Tomas Maier , to expand his own brand, Tomas Maier . In mid-2018, Kering ended the collaboration with Maier, who then discontinued the fashion brand named after him.

At the beginning of 2018 it was announced that the group would reduce its stake from 86% in the German sporting goods manufacturer Puma to 16% by mid-2018 and put the skater brand Volcom up for sale. The withdrawal from the Puma investment was completed in May 2018. The sale of Volcom to the New York marketing firm Authentic Brands Group was completed in April 2019. With this, Kering dissolved the Sport & Lifestyle segment . In mid-2018, the stake in the fashion brand Christopher Kane was sold to the designer of the same name.

English actress Emma Watson was appointed to the board of directors in June 2020 .

Company name

The company changed its name several times over the years. The Établissements Pinault became the Pinault SA in 1988 after an IPO . With the acquisition of the Printemps department store chain in 1992, the name was changed to Pinault-Printemps , and after buying up the La Redoute fashion chain in 1994, the company was called Pinault-Printemps-Redoute , which was shortened to PPR in 2005 . After the complete restructuring of the group was completed, the company renamed itself to Kering in mid-2013. According to the company, the made-up word Kering is based on the English word “Caring” and expresses the fact that the group cares about its brands as well as its customers, employees and other stakeholders. The prefix “Ker” also means “home” in the Breton language and is intended to recall the home of the Pinaults, and thus the company's roots in Brittany .

Subsidiaries

Since 2019, Kering has divided its subsidiaries into the areas of Couture & Leather Goods (fashion & leather goods), Watches & Jewelry (wristwatches & jewelry) and Kering Eyewear (Kering eyewear fashion ). The latter was founded in 2014 as a separate eyewear supplier for the company's fashion brands.

Current Kering brands

Former Kering brands

(Selection)

  • the Sergio Rossi shoe brand (sold to InvestIndustrial at the end of 2015)
  • Stella McCartney (McCartney bought Kering's 50% stake in her company in early 2018 and has partnered LVMH since July 15, 2019)
  • the sports glasses brand Electric (bought by Volcom in 2008 and sold to the company founder in 2016)
  • Puma with Cobra Golf (Kering retained 16% of the Puma shares in 2018)
  • The development of the watch brand JeanRichard of the Sowind Group has been suspended since 2017
  • Tomas Maier (dissolved in 2018, trademark rights remained with Maier)
  • Christopher Kane (sale to company founder announced in 2018, not yet completed, no longer listed in the Kering portfolio)
  • Volcom (sold to ABG in 2019)

management

As of 2014, Kering holds 40.9% of the shares (55.52% of the voting rights) in the family holding Groupe Artémis , founded by François Pinault in 1992 , in which the Pinault family bundles other companies from various industries.

Members of the Kering Board of Directors

  • François-Henri Pinault , CEO
  • Jean-François Palus, Group Managing Director
  • Jean-Marc Duplaix, Finance Director
  • Alexis Babeau, Managing Director of the Luxury Division
  • Marco Bizzarri, CEO Bottega Veneta
  • Patrizio di Marco, CEO Gucci
  • Björn Gulden , CEO Puma
  • Louise Beveridge, Head of Corporate Communications
  • Marie-Claire Daveu, Head of Sustainability
  • Bélen Essioux Trujillo, Head of Human Resources

Engagements

sustainability

Kering's strategy for sustainability has been one of the central projects for over a decade. The basic values ​​of Kering, which are summarized in the company's ethical mission statement, are binding for all brands. This also includes the principle of sustainable growth, which is one of the Group's most important principles. According to the principle “Sustainable business is smart business”, François-Henri Pinault set quantitative targets in April 2012, both for environmental protection and for social projects. The group is committed to achieving this by 2016.

At the same time, Kering is developing an instrument for measuring the Group's ecological footprint - called the “Environmental Profit & Loss Account” (E P&L). This new approach, which was developed by Puma , will be expanded to the entire group in 2016. Under the direction of Marie-Claire Daveu, 15 experts work in Kering's sustainability department to implement these goals.

The Kering Foundation

The Kering Foundation, personally chaired by François-Henri Pinault as President, is an important part of Kering's commitment to a more sustainable world. With her work, she pursues two fundamental goals: combating violence against women and supporting women on their way to greater independence.

Since its inception in 2009, the foundation has established 47 partnerships with non-governmental organizations and thus supported over 140,000 women in 16 countries. In line with the direction of the group, the Kering Foundation is mainly focused on three geographical zones: the American continents, Western Europe and Asia.

Several Kering brands run their own social projects, some of which are supported by the Kering Foundation. Particularly noteworthy here is the Gucci brand's fundraising initiative “Chime for Change”, which was launched in February 2013 and under the patronage of Frida Giannini , the chief designer at Gucci, Salma Hayek-Pinault and Beyoncé Knowles , women all over the world with special emphasis Focus on education, health and equity.

Suspected tax evasion

Criminal proceedings against the Kering Group have been ongoing in Italy since 2017. In late 2017, searches were carried out in the offices of Gucci's Milan headquarters. The company is suspected of having been doing business in Italy for several years in Switzerland. According to the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office, Kering created an "opaque network" to "evade taxes". The Italian tax authorities are said to have lost up to 1.3 billion euros as a result.

There is a suspicion that Kering has evaded around 2.5 billion euros in taxes since 2002, mainly in Italy, but also in France and Great Britain.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kering: Annual Report 2015. (PDF) Retrieved on September 26, 2016 (English).
  2. ↑ Gucci Group Agrees to Sell 40% Stake to French Retailer , latimes.com, March 20, 1999
  3. ^ Takeover dispute between Gucci and LVMH goes into new round , handelsblatt.com, September 27, 2000
  4. ↑ LVMH and PPR agree on Gucci ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , textilwirtschaft.de, September 6, 2001 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.textilwirtschaft.de
  5. ^ Analysts again in the pillory , manager-magazin.de, November 27, 2002
  6. ↑ Premium brands: Pinault wins battle for Gucci , tagesspiegel.de, September 5, 2001
  7. ^ Vault Guide to the Top Consumer Products Employers , via Google Books, 2006
  8. ↑ PPR takes over Gucci in installments , schwaebische.de, September 11, 2001
  9. ↑ Christina Passariello: PPR Buys Menswear Brand Brioni - WSJ.com . Online.wsj.com. November 8, 2011. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  10. ↑ PPR Aims to Buy More Chinese Brands After Adding Jeweler Qeelin . December 10, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  11. ↑ Luisa Zargani: Kering Acquires Pomellato . In: WWD , April 24, 2013. 
  12. ↑ Ella Alexander: PPR Buys Majority Stake In Christopher Kane . In: Vogue , January 15, 2013. 
  13. ↑ Kering Takes Minority Stake in Altuzarra . In: BoF , September 6, 2013. 
  14. ↑ Unsuccessful IPO - fiasco for the Fnac shares , nzz.ch, June 22, 2013
  15. ↑ Kering also wants to get rid of Volcom fashionunited.de, April 9, 2018
  16. ↑ Emma Watson is appointed to the supervisory board of a French luxury company. The world . Online edition from June 17, 2020.
  17. ↑ PPR becomes Kering - Puma mother changes name , manager-magazin.de, March 22, 2013
  18. ^ PPR becomes Kering. In: kering.com. March 22, 2013, accessed April 6, 2013 .
  19. ↑ PPR becomes Kering - Puma mother changes name , manager-magazin.de, March 22, 2013
  20. ^ 5 Lessons from Kering, the Sustainability Dark Horse . Triple pundit. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
  21. ^ Puma Puts Financial Value on Environmental Impact . Triple pundit. Retrieved May 19, 2011.
  22. ↑ Kering . kering.com. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  23. ^ Chime For Change Campaign, Beyoncé Launch Initiative To Help Girls Run The World . huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  24. ↑ Kering-suspected-of-tax evasion-at-corporate-level . fashionnetwork.com. May 19, 2018. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  25. ↑ le-groupe-francais-de-luxe-kering-aurait-soustrait-2-5-billion-d-euros-d-impots-selon-mediapart . lemonde.fr. March 16, 2018. Accessed on October 13, 2018.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.lemonde.fr