The Swiss group founded by Johann Rupert is certainly a leader in driving hard luxury brands to long term success.
Its formula has created some of the most prestigious companies in the world such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-LeCoultre among others.
It’s the group based on hard work, sharp vision and effective business performance. The head quarter in Geneva is surrounded by amazing parks and designed by Jean Nouvel.

But Richemont is also the group that saw well before any other the opportunity coming from the high-end e-commerce.
It acquired Net-à-Porter majority stake in 2010 and then it tookover the Yoox-NAP group in 2018 keeping the e-commerce genius and YOOX founder Federico Marchetti in 2018.
We can clearly say that this is the group with the greatest bold vision in the luxury industry

Now, along with the acquisition of beautiful Buccellati jewelry brand, the groups has decided to push further the development of its fashion division thanks to:

– a new CEO at Chloé, Riccardo Bellini (a very experienced top executive, coming from Margiela)
– a new brand with Alber Elbaz, the most romantic and beloved by women creative director

Slowly but steady is the mantra of this group.
And it seems to work perfectly with it.

It’s not surprising that a CTO who worked at Tesco and Unilever before leaves Richemont after five months in the role.

The most relevant luxury companies should innovate in their own way, not following the FMCG.

Luxury groups and brands, to continue to be successful, should make sure they manage their own evolution following the 5 key rules:

1. Train and nurture talents at all levels inside the company and the industry. Sponsor fashion and luxury schools with relevant programs. Create internal academies for keeping managers in-the-social-flow.
2. Have clear what a “luxury mindset” means and clearly put it as a priority in the recruitment profile. Being specific and clear means to be respectful of a luxury entity priorities, which are very different from mass market.
3. Be open-minded about what’s happening on the market. Stay outside the ivory tower of a male-only, uber exclusive luxury approach. Federico Marchetti YNAP is teaching a great lesson about selling hard luxury online
4. Contaminate the industry with the right talents but integrate them with a great support and lots of vision
5. Have clear what it means to manage a luxury brand and how it is different compared to managing a mass market company.

Food for thought.

Richemont officially proposed today to buy the 50% remaining stake of YNAP and Federico Marchetti announced his approval of the bid.
Richemont, guided by Johann Rupert was among the first ones to believe in the power of e-commerce when it bought Net-à-Porter in 2010.

Despite being a head of Group more focused on hard luxury with high-end watches and jewellery brands such as Cartier, Jaeger Le Coultre and Panerai, with a traditional distribution network made of brick and mortar retailers, Johann Rupert has always been very keen on new technologies and innovative projects and he recognized quickly the huge potential of online sales for fashion products.

Thanks to this move Richemont will become the greatest player in fashion e-commerce and the biggest e-commerce seller of its competitors’ brands.
It’s thanks to an impeccable vision and determination that Rupert and Marchetti put in place a strong strategy for the e-commerce company that will represent a benchmark for all the competitors.

It’s a pity that Kering, who set up a joint-venture with Yoox in 2012, didn’t go further and didn’t strengthen the partnership and that LVMH, owner of the very first luxury e-commerce, eLuxury, shut down its operations in 2009.