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Richemont has installed new chief executives at its jewellery brands Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, as the Swiss luxury group confronts succession planning and an industry-wide downturn.
Louis Ferla, current head of Richemont’s luxury watchmaker Vacheron Constantin, will replace Cyrille Vigneron, who has led Cartier for eight years.
Cartier’s jewellery and watch sales are the largest contributors to Richemont’s revenue and profit and the new appointment, which will be effective from September, is the latest in a series of management changes at the group.
Richemont chair Johann Rupert overhauled leadership of the wider group in May in a bid to streamline decision making.
Industry insiders say the reshuffle is also a way for 74-year-old Rupert, who founded the group in 1988 and is its controlling shareholder, to give investors a taste of what a generational transition could look like.
Although Rupert has no plans to step down, he has no clear successor among his three children. Like others in the luxury sector including LVMH, Richemont is grappling with the question of who will take the reins of the group after the founder’s retirement.
Nicolas Bos, who previously headed Van Cleef & Arpels, Richemont’s second-biggest jewellery brand, became chief executive in an expanded version of the role and is set to take a board seat in September.
Richemont announced on Tuesday that Catherine Rénier, currently chief executive of Jaeger-LeCoultre, will succeed Bos at Van Cleef & Arpels in September. She has worked in various roles at Richemont since 1999.
Richemont also owns watchmaker Piaget and fashion brands such as Chloé. It also has a majority stake in Yoox Net-a-Porter, which it has been seeking to offload, with a sale to online rival Farfetch falling through at the end of 2023.
Rupert said on Tuesday: “I am delighted that Louis has accepted to take on the top role at Cartier.
“He has earned the admiration and respect of his colleagues across the group and of the industry at large for having so brilliantly positioned Vacheron Constantin.”
Vigneron will help with the transition over the summer and retire at the start of September, the company said. After stepping down he will become chair of Cartier’s culture and philanthropy arm.
Ferla, who has run Vacheron Constantin since 2017, previously held various senior positions at Cartier, including running its China and Middle Eastern and India businesses. He spent almost two decades in Asia, beginning his career with Richemont at Alfred Dunhill in Hong Kong in 2001.
The region is an important one for the group and in January it said its sales increased “substantially” in Asia Pacific in 2023, although China’s cooling economy has recently been a cause for concern for the luxury sector.
Last month it was revealed that Bernard Arnault, the billionaire founder of LVMH, has bought shares in Richemont as a personal investment.
