Does LVMH want to sell Marc Jacobs?

It's easy for a mega-group to acquire a brand, but it's harder for it to decide to sell it. Apparently, however, that's what might be happening with LVMH, which, according to some rumors reported by BoF, is discreetly considering the sale of Marc Jacobs to potential interested buyers who, according to the rumors, could be either other smaller groups or private investment funds. However, LVMH has denied the rumor — but that's what one might expect. As mentioned earlier, the practice of selling one of its own brands is not common, so much so that the last one given away by the LVMH colossus was Donna Karan and its DKNY line in 2016. The reason for the sale, instead, is to turn the ownership of the brand into a cash injection for the group by removing from its portfolio an accessible luxury brand to fully dedicate itself to high-end brands like Louis Vuitton or Dior.

After the restructuring carried out by LVMH, the Marc Jacobs brand has become quite profitable with 600 million euros in sales recorded in 2023 according to unofficial sources. A success also due to the founder and creative director's social media success and virality, to his unconventional yet always spectacular fashion shows, and also to the launch of Heaven by Marc Jacobs, the second line designed by Ava Nirui, which has brought the brand a level of cultural relevance and a cult following it hadn't held since the early 2000s. Overall, Jacobs is one of LVMH's most celebrated and historic flag bearers, having also been one of the most successful creative directors at Louis Vuitton, and his 40th anniversary, celebrated with a viral show and also with a photoshoot featuring Pharrell, suggests that the relationship between the group's leadership and the designer is strong.

It's interesting, however, to consider how LVMH, with its 75 brands, could in the future (presumably, in adverse market conditions) decide to "thin the herd" to make its imposing corporate structure more agile. Especially in view of the new and more significant role it will assume with the Paris Olympics, deciding to become a company solely dedicated to European ultra-luxury and to focus on smaller brands through collateral participations or investments by L Catterton could represent one of the group's future strategies - which would, however, mark a change in the fashion industry's corporate practice that could set a precedent.