On June 27th, Bernard Arnault, the former world’s richest person and the CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the French luxury goods conglomerate, made an appearance in Beijing. He visited the core commercial district stores accompanied by his daughter and youngest son.
Following the visits of Elon Musk and Bill Gates to China, Arnault becomes the third former world’s richest person to visit China this year. Netizens revealed that they encountered Arnault while shopping at Beijing’s SKP shopping mall, seemingly witnessing him inspecting the stores. Arnault’s youngest son currently serves as the Market Development Manager for the LV watch department and was also present during the visit.
According to informed sources, LVMH Group attaches great importance to the Chinese market’s recovery after the pandemic. On April 12th, LVMH released its first-quarter performance report for 2023. By the end of March this year, the group’s quarterly sales reached 21.035 billion euros (approximately 159 billion RMB), a 17% year-on-year increase, surpassing market expectations of 8.97%. Analysts believe that such achievements are related to the recovery of the Chinese market. “LVMH is very optimistic about the Chinese market in 2023, and the first-quarter figures indicate a promising development outlook for the rest of the year.” Jean-Jacques Guiony, the CFO of LVMH Group, stated during a conference call that the fashion and leather goods sectors achieved double-digit growth in China, serving as the primary driver for sales growth in that department.
In March of this year, L’Oréal Global CEO Jean-Paul Agon and Estée Lauder Group’s Global President and CEO Fabrizio Freda also visited China. Source