Kering: ‘It would not make sense to have Italian Gucci bags made in Texas’
François-Henri Pinault, chief executive officer of Kering, April 24, 2025. Credits: BERTRAND GUAY / AFP Paris - For François-Henri Pinault, chief executive officer of the luxury group Kering, owner of brands such as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, “it would not make sense to have Italian Gucci bags made in Texas”. “We sell French culture, we sell Italian culture. It would not make sense for me to have Italian Gucci bags made in Texas,” said the chief executive officer of Kering on Tuesday, when questioned by members of parliament about Emmanuel Macron’s call for “economic patriotism” and “not to give in to the sirens of Donald Trump”. “It doesn’t make sense to my clients. I can’t explain that. On the other hand, highlighting the level of craftsmanship, whether French or Italian, in my Saint Laurent products or in my Gucci products, that makes sense,” added Pinault, who was being questioned by the Senate committee of inquiry into public aid to companies. “This issue is not really a reality for the luxury industry,” he added. “What we do abroad is open stores. Given the economic environment, today, we are more in the process of rationalising our distribution networks than expanding them. So we are not faced with investment problems, either in the US or in China,” he said. In January, his competitor Bernard Arnault, chief executive officer of the world’s number one luxury goods company LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hennessy, Moët and Chandon, Givenchy...) caused controversy by declaring that the French tax measures planned in the 2025 budget, in particular a surcharge for large companies, were “an incentive to relocate”. He was returning from the US, where he had attended Donald Trump’s inauguration in a prominent position. The LVMH group has three Louis Vuitton workshops in the US, including one in Texas. Kering has 46,936 employees worldwide, including 4,731 in France and 13,278 in Italy. Six of its 14 brands are Italian, including its flagship brand, Gucci, which accounts for 44 percent of its turnover and two-thirds of its profitability. In 2024, the group’s turnover reached 17.2 billion euros, “with France accounting for around 5 percent” of this total, Pinault pointed out. Kering has 5 production sites in France. This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com
Paris - For François-Henri Pinault, chief executive officer of the luxury group Kering, owner of brands such as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, “it would not make sense to have Italian Gucci bags made in Texas”.
“We sell French culture, we sell Italian culture. It would not make sense for me to have Italian Gucci bags made in Texas,” said the chief executive officer of Kering on Tuesday, when questioned by members of parliament about Emmanuel Macron’s call for “economic patriotism” and “not to give in to the sirens of Donald Trump”.
“It doesn’t make sense to my clients. I can’t explain that. On the other hand, highlighting the level of craftsmanship, whether French or Italian, in my Saint Laurent products or in my Gucci products, that makes sense,” added Pinault, who was being questioned by the Senate committee of inquiry into public aid to companies.
“This issue is not really a reality for the luxury industry,” he added. “What we do abroad is open stores. Given the economic environment, today, we are more in the process of rationalising our distribution networks than expanding them. So we are not faced with investment problems, either in the US or in China,” he said.
In January, his competitor Bernard Arnault, chief executive officer of the world’s number one luxury goods company LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hennessy, Moët and Chandon, Givenchy...) caused controversy by declaring that the French tax measures planned in the 2025 budget, in particular a surcharge for large companies, were “an incentive to relocate”. He was returning from the US, where he had attended Donald Trump’s inauguration in a prominent position.
The LVMH group has three Louis Vuitton workshops in the US, including one in Texas. Kering has 46,936 employees worldwide, including 4,731 in France and 13,278 in Italy. Six of its 14 brands are Italian, including its flagship brand, Gucci, which accounts for 44 percent of its turnover and two-thirds of its profitability.
In 2024, the group’s turnover reached 17.2 billion euros, “with France accounting for around 5 percent” of this total, Pinault pointed out.
Kering has 5 production sites in France.
FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com
This article was translated to English using an AI tool.
