Gucci owner PPR, the massive French luxury goods group, could be poised to restructure.
It will go unnoticed by many UK retail-watchers, but a massive shake-up in the European consumer goods industry could be on the cards. PPR, the huge French luxury goods and retail group, looks like it is about to break itself up. For those unfamiliar with the company, here is a list of some of PPR’s brands; Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Sergio Rossi, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Puma, Tretorn, Conforama, La Redoute, The Golf Warehouse and FNAC. It has annual sales of £18bn and over 88,000 employees. The Paris-based group has always been an odd mixture of high-end luxury – Gucci etc – and low-end, mass-market retail. Conforama is a 220-store mid-market furniture chain that operates in 7 European countries, while the 150-store FNAC is the French equivalent of Woolworths. La Redoute-owner Redcats Group, meanwhile, is a clothing retailer and mail order company with 600 shops, 60 websites and 30 catalogues. These latter brands have never sat particularly well next to YSL and Stella McCartney. – From the Telegraph