Luxury brand PPR is now Kering

By Laura Chesters

Stepping out of the shadows of your father when he created one of France’s most successful conglomerates can’t be easy. But on the arm of his film star wife, Salma Hayek, at least François-Henri Pinault gets recognised in Hollywood and business circles.

Pinault, 50, is the chief executive and chairman of France’s PPR, a group created the year after he was born by his father François Pinault. Pinault Sr handed the throne to his son in 2005, leaving him to make his own mark on the business that once spanned everything from timber to catalogues.

On Saturday François-Henri made his biggest mark yet, renaming it Kering to emphasise his reorganisation of the €22 billion listed group to focus on sportswear and luxury brands, which include the leading fashion names Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent.

The old name derived from Pinault Printemps Redoute, although it sold the Parisian department store Printemps in 2006 and is spinning off and selling its catalogues business, La Redoute, as well as its music and books chain, Fnac.

But the new name doesn’t totally eschew the business’s roots: the Pinault clan comes from Brittany, and Kering, pronounced “caring”, comes from the Breton for home, “ker”, while the owl logo is in honour of his father. “Owls are my father’s favourite animal,” Pinault says. “It is his adventure that I am continuing.”

Pinault’s focus is on growth; he has plans to more than double sales to reach €24 billion a year by 2020, up from €9.7 billion currently.

- (Independent)