Already Gucci’s deputy CEO since last May, Stefano Cantino, formerly of Prada and Louis Vuitton, will replace Jean-François Palus as CEO at the beginning of 2025. The challenge is enormous: the Florentine House, which accounts for half of the Kering Group’s sales and two-thirds of its operating profitability, is on a very slippery slope.
His appointment was eagerly awaited. Gucci has just announced the name of its new CEO: Stefano Cantino will replace Jean-François Palus in this position from January 1, 2025.
Already appointed Deputy General Manager at Gucci last May, Stefano Cantino will now take over the reins of the Florentine House on his own. He will sit on Kering’s Executive Committee and report to Francesca Bellettini, Kering’s Deputy Managing Director in charge of House Development.
A graduate in Political Science from the University of Turin, Stefano Cantino “spent 20 years with the Prada group,where he held positions of increasing responsibility in Marketing and Business Development, before becoming Communications and Marketing Director”.
He then joined LVMH, Kering’s rival group, where he spent five years at Louis Vuitton, overseeing Communication and Image.
Mission accomplished for Jean-François Palus
Since July 2023, Jean-François Palus, a close associate of François-Henri Pinault and a senior executive at Kering (Ex Pinault then Ppr) since 1991, had been Managing Director of Gucci. The main objective was to “lay the foundations for Gucci’s new chapter and recruit key talent, including his successor”.
Mission accomplished according to François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Kering, who thanked him “warmly for his achievements at the helm of Gucci since the summer of 2023.” “In a particularly complex period, he made the courageous decisions the House needed and laid the solid foundations for a new Gucci to flourish under Stefano’s leadership.”
François-Henri Pinault also praised “Jean-François’s close and constant collaboration over the last 30 years, which has been of inestimable support to me.” A sentence that could sound like a farewell as the next mission within Kering of the interested party, who will celebrate his 63rd birthday at the end of October, remains unknown. Prior to his appointment as CEO of Gucci, Jean-François Palus was Deputy CEO of Kering.
Getting Gucci back on track
Last February, François-Henri Pinault stated that his “priority is to get Gucci back on track”, while admitting that this “won’t happen overnight”.
He also identified the Florentine fashion house’s weak point as its lack of “expertise and talent in key positions of the company”.
Last September, Gucci had announced the appointment of Davide Buzzoni, an LVMH (Loro Piana) defector, as head of global communications, replacing Benjamin Cercio, who had stayed in the post for only a year and a half.
In Stefano Cantino, has Kering finally found the man it needs for its flagship House?
Peril in the house
At a time when sales of Kering’s flagship House – which accounts for almosthalf of the Group’s sales and two-thirds of its profits – have fallen by 20% inthe first half of 2024, there is danger in the house. Raising Gucci’s prices to position it even more ultra-luxury has not been enough.
Of course, the future of such a House depends first and foremost on the collections of its artistic director. However, those of Sabato de Sarno, appointed in January 2023, have not yet triggered the expected change. His predecessor, Alessandro Michele, from 2015 to the end of 2022, had blown away the counters for several years with his baroque creativity. But the pandemic had taken its toll, prompting his departure.
Finding the right “manager-designer” duo is, however, the secret of a winning recipe for a luxury House, as Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, has always stressed.
It remains to be seen, therefore, whether the two Italians who will find themselves at the helm of Gucci will be able to find the right levers to get the rocket off the ground… on a minefield. Indeed, the sluggishness of the Chinese market is particularly worrying for Gucci, which is more dependent on it than some of its competitors.
Confidence?
Like François-Henri Pinault, Francesca Bellettini says she too is “confident in the ability of Stefano and the Gucci team, building on what has been built over the last 15 months, to succeed in their mission to restore Gucci to the leadership the brand deserves.”
All that remains now is to convince the Paris Bourse. On the same day as the appointment was announced, October 8, Kering’s share price fell by 4.45%. According to the financial press, however, it had been affected, like other luxury stocks, by Beijing’s failure to announce new measures to stimulate China’s flagging economic growth.
The following day, October 9, just after 11:00 a.m., Kering shares rallied by 1.44%.
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Read also > Gucci appoints Davide Buzzoni Global Communications Director
Featured Photo: © Gucci
