LVMH’s Antonio Belloni to step down from key management role

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Antonio Belloni is to step down from his LVMH management role as deputy to billionaire chief executive Bernard Arnault, amid a wider reshuffle of the French luxury company’s top ranks.

Belloni, who has worked at Arnault’s side for 23 years as he built LVMH into the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate spanning handbags to hotels, will in April relinquish his positions of group managing director and chair of the executive committee.

LVMH’s head of watches and jewellery, Stéphane Bianchi, will succeed Belloni.

The group on Thursday said Belloni, 69, will also leave the LVMH board after its annual shareholder meeting in April, although he will remain at the company to work on “strategic missions” with Arnault as well as hold the position of president of LVMH Italy.

“Toni has been a major contributor to the success of LVMH . . . an essential partner to me and a very important member of the LVMH family,” Arnault said.

LVMH has a market capitalisation of €423bn and its top brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior and Tiffany.

The change in Belloni’s role is the latest shake up of LVMH’s top ranks after Michael Burke, former chief executive of Louis Vuitton, in January succeeded Sidney Toledano as head of the company’s Fashion Group, which oversees labels including Céline, Loewe and Givenchy.

All five of Arnault’s children have positions within LVMH, and any changes in their roles as well as those of the older generation of managers close to the 75-year-old chief executive are closely watched for indications of who might succeed him.

Two of Arnault’s sons, Alexandre and Frédéric, were nominated to the LVMH board last month, where they would join their older siblings Delphine and Antoine.

If the nominations are approved at the LVMH annual meeting, it would mean all except Arnault’s youngest son, Jean, would have board seats, consolidating the family’s hold on the group.

Delphine, the eldest at 48, runs Dior, while Antoine, 46, is in charge of image and communications for the group.

Alexandre, 31, is a senior executive at Tiffany while Frédéric, 29, was recently promoted to run LVMH Watches. Jean, 25, is developing the watches division at Louis Vuitton.

After joining the Paris-based group in 2001, Belloni became a key adviser to Arnault while playing a major role in the group’s strategy, operations and acquisitions.

He has also overseen LVMH’s regional presidents and directed the group’s digital transformation.

The Italian executive joined the company from consumer products group Procter & Gamble, where he worked in various roles in the US and Europe.

“As I step down from my current role, I realise how fortunate I have been to play a leadership role at the heart of one of the most extraordinary entrepreneurial ventures of recent decades,” Belloni said.

Bianchi joined LVMH in 2018 from French cosmetics group Yves Rocher, where he became chief executive at the age of 33.

Since then, he has been promoted from chief executive of watchmaker TAG Heuer to lead a division that encompasses LVMH’s jewellery brands including Tiffany as well as its watches. He also sits on the LVMH executive committee.

“Since joining the group, Stéphane Bianchi has demonstrated rare leadership and management qualities,” Arnault said. “I am convinced that with Stéphane at my side . . . we will take the success of the LVMH group even further.”