Paris Olympics set to highlight French luxurious items large LVMH | EUROtoday

Issued on: 13/02/2024 – 06:07Modified: 13/02/2024 – 09:36

4 min

Parisian luxurious jewelry home Chaumet, one in all LVMH’s lesser-known properties, was thrust into the general public limelight on Thursday when its design for the medals for the July 26-August 11 extravaganza was unveiled.

The function was a departure from its normal area of interest making engagement rings, tiaras and diamond-studded broaches for the ultra-wealthy, with LVMH hoping to harness the massive worldwide attain of the Olympics on residence turf.

Antoine Arnault, senior LVMH govt and eldest son of firm founder Bernard Arnault, stated on the ceremony to disclose the medals that there was a “quasi-military organisation inside the company” engaged on Paris Olympics initiatives.

“LVMH as a partner will try to add a little touch of creativity, notably during the moments of celebration,” he instructed reporters.

Controlled by the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, LVMH signed up as “premium partner” for the Paris Games in July final yr after months of advanced negotiations about the usage of its manufacturers.

While Chaumet secured the medal honour, high-end leather-based items model Berluti is ready to decorate the French athletes through the spectacular opening ceremony being deliberate on the river Seine on July 26.

Thousands of Olympics VIPs and high-paying company friends are set to sip LVMH-owned Moet & Chandon champagne in addition to Hennessy cognac amongst different premium drinks of their hospitality suites.

Dior can also be set for a task — which has not but been introduced — as is well known purse and baggage maker Louis Vuitton.

A collection of LVMH-sponsored sports activities ambassadors will assist promote the model on social media, with 21-year-old French swimming medal hope Leon Marchand one of many earliest names revealed.

Luxurious sports activities

LVMH has declined to make public how a lot it’s contributing to the 4.4-billion-euro ($4.7 billion) organising price range of the Games.

A supply near the negotiations instructed AFP on the time that it was value round 150 million euros ($160 million) — round one p.c of the document 15.2 billion euros in internet revenue posted by the group final yr.

Commenting on why LVMH took so lengthy negotiating its take care of the Paris organisation, Antoine Arnault defined in July that the corporate “didn’t want to just be a financial partner. We wanted to have a role to play in the holding of these Olympic Games.”

LVMH is the world’s largest luxurious items large, with manufacturers throughout style, jewelry, fragrance, alcohol and baggage that commerce on France’s centuries-old fame as a centre of taste-making and artistry.

“France and Paris are such a potent association for luxury brands, it’s kind of a no-brainer for LVMH to want to be as involved as they can be,” stated Robert Williams, luxurious editor at The Business of Fashion, a specialist style writer.

Sports had been “a space where brands have been ramping up significantly in recent years”.

“You have the TV viewership of sporting events, which makes it a really good placement opportunity, plus the fact that sporting events have become more luxurious,” he instructed AFP.

“Paris will be the centre of the world for a few weeks,” agreed Luca Solca, a luxurious items analyst on the Bernstein Autonomous funding analysis group.

“Sport is one of the very few ‘global languages’ available for brands to communicate to all people in the world without the risk of a faux pas,” he instructed AFP.

‘Income inequality’

While serving to attain new audiences internationally, LVMH’s function additionally has a robust home dimension in serving to promote the corporate to French folks as a socially accountable company, Williams added.

Bernard Arnault’s fortune — estimated at round $200 billion (185.5 billion euros) by Forbes — and LVMH’s enormous income continuously draw criticism in a rustic strongly connected to wealth redistribution.

“In recent years, they’ve made a real effort to make sure that people see them in a favourable light because you have a lot of tensions around income inequality,” Williams stated.

Part of that effort is being seen to “keep alive certain elements of French craftsmanship,” he stated.

The Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee has a spread of worldwide sponsors starting from Coca-Cola to Toyota, main some critics to argue that the fashionable Olympics have develop into tainted by company cash.

Many main French corporations have signed up as native companions with the Paris organisers, with a notable exception: oil group TotalEnergies, which was vigorously opposed by Paris’ eco-minded mayor, Anne Hidalgo.

(AFP)