Richemont are about to create a new role in their own management, as they are going to appoint the Fashion & Accessories unit manager. Starting from next 1stJune, Eric Vallat will first take this brand new position and, as a new member of the company’s executive committee, he will directly report to Jèrôme Lambert, chief executive officer of Richemont. Vallat gained relevant experience, over 20 years long, as a top manager at Louis Vuitton Europe and Christian Dior Couture Japan. Since 2014, he has been CEO of Rémy Martin (a renowned French brandy manufacturer) and, since 2016, president of Mount Gay Rum. The decision to appoint him proves that Richemont want to enhance their fashion brands and, at the same time, start further acquisitions, following the buyout, in 2017, of Serapian, a leather goods company based in Milan. Richemont’s new unit comprises a number of brands, such as Alfred Dunhill, Azzedine Alaїa, Chloé, Lancel, Serapian, Peter Millar, and the manufacturing of components for watches, along with Montblanc brand. The above-mentioned brand products are currently considered, in the Swiss company’s official statements, as “Other” commodities, whose incomes were worth, on March 31, 2018, 16,56% of the overall turnover. Yet their operating output was negative, mostly owing to some difficulties that affected Shanghai Tang (a Chinese luxury brand they sold last year) and Lancel, a leather goods brand that might be bought by Piquadro.
