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With the new year, LVMH continues to reshuffle its leadership. Following the nomination of Frédéric Arnault as CEO of LVMH Watches earlier this month, the French luxury conglomerate announced on Thursday the appointment of Michael Burke as chairman and CEO of LVMH Fashion Group, succeeding Sidney Toledano. The change is effective on 1 February.
Burke handed over the reins of Louis Vuitton, which he led since 2013, to Pietro Beccari in January 2023. A transition at the LVMH Fashion Group was expected. At the LVMH annual general meeting in April 2023, chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault hinted that Toledano was moving to another role within the company, without confirming reports that Burke was in line for the job.
In his 10-year tenure at Louis Vuitton, Burke, who is 66 and has worked with Arnault for four decades, managed to nearly triple the size of the brand. In 2013, sales were €7.1 billion. In 2022, they were €20.6 billion, according to HSBC estimates. “Under his leadership, Louis Vuitton became the largest and most prestigious maison in the world, placing culture at the heart of its creative vision and development. His extensive experience and his passion for craft and creativity are invaluable assets to pursue and further accelerate the dynamic growth of the maisons in the LVMH Fashion Group,” Arnault said in a statement on Thursday.
Toledano has been appointed advisor to Arnault, and will exit the LVMH executive committee. “He still has a tremendous amount to bring to us,” Arnault said. Toledano joined Dior in 1994, and was promoted to chairman and CEO of the brand four years later. He moved to become head of the fashion group division in 2018, with Beccari taking over at Dior in his wake.
Speaking of his successor at the LVMH Fashion Group, Toledano said: “His energy and universally acclaimed talent will prove a fantastic guide for all the fashion maisons he will directly oversee. I wish him every success in this new adventure. I will never be far, and I will continue to work alongside Bernard Arnault and remain involved with the fashion industry at [Paris fashion school] the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) or at the executive committee of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode to promote exceptional French creativity.”
On Wednesday, Burke and Toledano sat at the same table at the Givenchy menswear show held in the house’s salons on Avenue George V, alongside Givenchy CEO Renaud de Lesquen. The collection was designed by the studio following the departure of Matthew Williams. At the top of Burke’s agenda will be finding a new creative director for Givenchy. He will also focus on positioning Celine, which passed the €2 billion mark in 2022, to reach €3 billion in annual sales.
Burke takes on the role in a challenging macroenvironment. In the third quarter, the fashion and leather goods division, which the LVMH Fashion Group sits within, grew 9 per cent, marking a deceleration compared to first and second quarter growth of 18 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.
While LVMH doesn’t break out sales for the LVMH Fashion Group — including Celine, Givenchy, Loewe, Pucci, Kenzo, Marc Jacobs and Patou (it’s understood that the group will also include Fendi from now on) — the annual earnings conference set for next week could well offer a view of how it has been performing.
“I fully embrace the objective of heightening the magic of these extraordinary maisons, with their amazing capacity for innovation and their unique history and savoir faire,” Burke stated.
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