Business Of Fashion : Lorenzo Bertelli: The Prince of Prada Prepares to Take the

Lorenzo Bertelli: The Prince of Prada Prepares to Take the Wheel
The 35 year-old former racecar driver — son of designer Miuccia Prada and the company’s chairman Patrizio Bertelli — is restructuring the Milanese group from the inside out. ‘Everything’s changing so that everything can stay the same,’ the BoF 500 cover star said about readying Prada for its next chapter.

MILAN – At Prada’s Spring/Summer 2024 show in Milan, the brand’s signature mashup of innovation and heritage was on full display.

A curtain of slime oozed from the ceiling, creating a striking backdrop for a collection rich in twisted glamour: a lineup of organza shift dresses harkening back to the 1920s gave off a ghostly aura thanks to vapour-light details. The gowns were punctuated by bourgeois wardrobe staples like cashmere polos — which got a punk twist from rows of metal rivets — and patchwork leather overcoats that felt both ladylike and louche.

The Prada brand is white-hot, with revenues rising 17 percent in the first half of the year despite a rocky luxury market. With sales back on track after years of sluggish growth, managing generational change is now the company’s top priority: Designer Miuccia Prada, 74, and her husband and business partner Patrizio Bertelli, 77, are gradually relinquishing control of the company. Titans of the Italian luxury industry since taking control of the brand founded by Miuccia’s grandfather in the 1980s, the pair gave up their long-held co-CEO titles earlier this year, hiring Prada’s first-ever external chief executives at both the group and brand levels.

Since 2020, Miuccia Prada has been flanked by co-artistic director, Raf Simons, her favoured successor. The brand’s September show was the last for design director Fabio Zambernardi, who is preparing to retire from the company after roughly three decades working as Mrs. Prada’s right-hand for both Prada and sister label Miu Miu.

Passing the baton to the next generation at Prada—which more than any other listed luxury brand remains fuelled by the personal obsessions of its founders, will be no easy feat.

Enter Lorenzo Bertelli, Miuccia and Patrizio’s eldest son and the company’s group marketing director. As the fast-rising heir to Prada’s throne, in just a few years Bertelli has come to embody the company’s push to balance continuity with the need for evolution.

On the day of the show, Bertelli, 35, greeted celebrity guests including actress Scarlett Johansson and Korean pop singers Enhypen as cameras whirred around the runway capturing the collection from every angle.

“Everything’s changing so that everything can stay the same,” the executive told BoF in a recent interview at Prada’s art foundation, a former distillery in Milan that the family has converted into a sprawling museum, complete with a gleaming tower designed by Rem Koolhaas where the brand stages its runway shows.
At Prada’s Spring/Summer 2024 show in Milan, the brand’s signature mashup of innovation and heritage was on full display. (Getty Images)

An energetic 35 year-old with lively eyes and an approachable demeanour, Bertelli was unknown to the worlds of fashion and business prior to joining the company in late 2017, having dedicated most of his adult life to sport: Bertelli was a racecar driver on the rally circuit since 2010. Before that, he was mad about football, playing with ultra-competitive drive throughout his teenage years.

Longstanding efforts to revive Prada’s top line were already starting to take hold when Bertelli joined the company. Growth has since accelerated, as Bertell first worked to revamp the company’s digital communications — long a weak spot for the company — helping to revive buzz around the brand especially among young shoppers. (A move to bring back the brand’s iconic nylon accessories, albeit at a higher price point, also helped).

“I had to decide whether to start where there was already a know-how, like supply chain or retail, or start at the weakest point and put an eye on something where my parents weren’t as strong,” Bertelli explained.
Lorenzo Bertelli met with BoF at Prada’s show space inside their art foundation in Milan. While his education and early career were unconventional, as the child of Miuccia Prada Patrizio Bertelli he is to the manor born. (Lea Colombo for BoF)
The executive has since expanded his purview: In addition to joining the group’s board of directors in 2021, he now oversees all of the company’s marketing activities, as well as initiatives in technology, sustainability, and the launch of a new fine jewellery division. Bertelli has also worked closely with design and commercial teams to engineer a turnaround at Miu Miu, where a sharper marketing message and more focused collections are driving explosive sales growth (The brand’s revenues jumped over 50 percent in the first half of this year.)

‘A Completely New Team’
If the soundtrack for Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” boomed at the September show, Bertelli’s rise comes as Prada Group seeks to build on its own great heights: The company is chasing growth on top of its best-ever year in business in 2022, after a spate of buzzy collections and a pandemic surge in luxury demand finally pushed Prada above its previous high water mark from the 2010s (the flagship Galleria bag’s boom years in China). The group reported 2022 sales of €4.2 billion, of which €3.7 billion were generated in its own retail stores.

But the company is aiming to write its next chapter of growth and manage generational change at a tricky time: after post-Covid euphoria powered an unprecedented surge in revenues for top luxury brands, the market has been shaken by high inflation and a declining demand from aspirational shoppers.

The family has brought in a team of top business leaders from outside the company to act as regents, easing the transition to Lorenzo Bertelli’s intended reign. Andrea Guerra, who led eyewear giant Luxottica during its 2000s boom, has joined as group CEO, while Gianfranco D’Attis, a Swiss executive who worked at Richemont before overseeing a period of explosive growth at LVMH’s Christian Dior as president of the brand’s Americas division, has been hired as CEO at flagship Prada label.

The elder Mr. Bertelli has transitioned to an executive chairman role while owner-designer Miuccia Prada continues to serve as co-creative director alongside Simons, as well as designing Miu Miu. In the last year, the company also appointed new executives to the role of CFO, auditor, counsel, and head of people.

“Since two years it’s a completely new team,” Lorenzo Bertelli said of the executive overhaul. “The fashion industry has changed a lot. It’s like sports — you can’t just win with your talent anymore, you need a structure, an organisation.”

An Unconventional Path
Bertelli’s path to the C-suite has been at once highly traditional and highly unconventional. As the eldest son in the fourth generation of Prada’s founding family, Lorenzo was the company’s prince in waiting. At the same time, he snubbed business studies, instead opting to study philosophy at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, a programme that attracts bright young Italians looking to avoid (or at least delay) the specialised economics programmes that most see as the path to business success.

Passionate about sports, Bertelli devoted his teenage years to soccer before becoming a racecar driver, spending nearly a decade driving in road rallies around the world.

While it’s tempting to imagine that Prada’s scion has been quietly groomed for the top job since birth, Bertelli claims his involvement in — or even awareness of — the group’s operations was minimal prior to joining the company. “It was my parents’ job, really just that,” Bertelli said.

Lorenzo Bertelli devoted his teenage years to soccer before becoming a racecar driver, spending nearly a decade driving in road rallies (Getty Images)

Even as he grew older and started to contemplate “taking his responsibility in the group,” he remained distanced from the company by the lengthy rally season, travelling as many as 200 days every year on a circuit that stretches from Monte Carlo in January to Japan in November.

Still, Bertelli gained skills that have served him during his rapid rise in the group. Sports taught him “to look at yourself in the mirror — really,” he says. “In sports it’s the same as in business: You compete with others, sure, but first you compete with yourself.”

His philosophy courses at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele, meanwhile, sharpened his aptitude for dialogue and resolving contradictory points of view. That’s hardly without value in a global fashion industry where top executives straddle oversight of manufacturing, retail, design and marketing across various regions every day.
“What we really lack in the world today are people who can communicate,” Bertelli said.

Despite remaining a relatively untested executive, the market has responded favourably to the younger Bertelli’s increased involvement in the group. That’s in part because he delivered swift results when he joined Prada in digital marketing, where the company had long been a laggard after years of under-investing in Instagram and snubbing influencers.
In 2021, Lorenzo Bertelli put forth action plans on key pillars like marketing and sustainability at an investor day presentation .

By the time of his first 2021 investor Q&A, Lorenzo Bertelli put forth action plans on key pillars like marketing, sustainability, technology and the company’s forthcoming push into fine jewellery. Markets welcomed increased involvement of Prada’s next generation.

Soon after the investor event shares rose to nearly a five-year high. Revenues soon followed: Prada reported their highest-ever sales figures last year, surpassing 4.2 billion euros.

“Lorenzo has been instrumental in driving a number of changes for the better,” analyst Luca Solca said.
“It’s very difficult to replicate the complementarities between Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli,” said Paola Cillo, director of the Luxury Management program at Milan’s Bocconi University. “Lorenzo has a philosophical training that appears to align him with [Miuccia] Prada, as well as seeming to share in some of his father’s pragmatic, hands-on business vision. He is literally their child — this is a unique trait and very interesting for the market.”

Prada’s Cultural Approach
Prada reached its recent high-water mark amid surging luxury sales since the pandemic. Online brand activations had been catnip to homebound consumers during the first years of Covid-19, while fiscal stimulus, surging equities and a “YOLO” attitude prompted a shopping rush once stores and travel resumed. Prada’s sporty-chic brand image and logo-heavy merchandising with inverted triangles galore made it a natural winner.
Now, as higher interest rates and slowing economic growth strain many customers, luxury companies are racing to stave off potential brand fatigue. “Fashion is a bit tired at the present moment,” Bertelli admitted.
“We have so much credibility, but no one knows. You need to advertise it” Bertelli said. (Lea Colombo for BoF)

To stay in the conversation, luxury houses are ramping up efforts to reach potential clients via interests beyond just fashion, dialling up their marketing activities across sports, music, cinema and other facets of culture.
Prada, is in many ways the original “cultural brand,” having enriched its brand message through Mrs. Prada and Bertelli’s synthesis of cutting-edge influences going back to the 1980s. For decades, the brand has worked to generate novelty from aesthetic contradictions: juggling its Art Deco roots with signatures that celebrate Italian post-War Modernity, as well as tapping in cutting-edge contemporary creativity.

The company’s Rem Koolhaas-designed art foundation has moved the dial on Milan’s cultural scene with shows curated by art luminaries like Luc Tuymans populated with iconic works from Damien Hirst and Carsten Holler to Carravaggio. Director Wes Anderson, who was seated beside Scarlett Johansson on the front row at September’s show, designed the museum café, and has also curated shows for the foundation.

Actors like Joaquin Phoenix and John Malkovich appeared in Prada campaigns starting in the early 2000s, while Miu Miu was the first luxury brand to put actresses in the place of models. Chloë Sevigny and Uma Thurman are among those to have graced its runway before Emma Corrin debuted the look of the season for Autumn/Winter 2023: a turtleneck sweater with sequined briefs, tights, and peep-toe pumps. In the world of sport, sponsorships that have anchored the credibility of its red-tag line of sneakers and rain shells include the Luna Rossa sailing team, whose victories in competitions including the Louis Vuitton Cup won it the right to challenge for the Americas Cup, sailing’s top honour.

“Back then, no one was doing those kind of things. But Prada’s brand identity is ultimately a perspective on things — to have a vision on modernity, on culture, on sport. It goes beyond fashion.” Bertelli said.
Sketching a triangle on a napkin, Bertelli explains that decades-long efforts have positioned the brand at the very top of culture’s pyramid across a variety of domains. The brand’s challenge now will be to “stretch” that involvement to include activations that reach a wider audience without diluting the brand’s aura of insider authority.

“We have so much credibility, but a lot of people don’t know. You need to advertise it,” Bertelli said.
The company’s recent drive to boost sales of its flagship Galleria style — now fronted by actress Scarlett Johannsen — is a good example of the effort to “stretch” while still aiming for the top: Johansson’s career was initially anchored by arty flicks like “Lost in Translation” or “Match Point,” but has gone on to include blockbusters like Marvel’s “Black Widow.”

Its a marketing approach well-suited to a company that needs to sell more well-known products like perfume or nylon backpacks while still preserving the niche appeal of its ready-to-wear collections for fashion insiders: Prada is one of just a handful of luxury brands to make real money with seasonal collections, with a long roster of devoted clients who place orders in advance every season.

While Prada has added more “look at me” elements like faux-fur-coated walls, oozing slime or panopticon-like camera robots to its runways, the brand has avoided using those moments to court too much mass appeal.
“You can’t stretch the fashion part too much or you kill it — I prefer to use other tools. The fashion needs to keep a certain purity,” Bertelli said.
At Prada’s Spring 2024 show, Spanish pop singer Rosalía, Hunter Schafer, Emma Watson, Scarlett Johannsen and Wes Anderson sat in a line. The brand is working to broaden awareness of its cultural authority. (Getty Images)

At its recent Milan show, Prada nailed the brief for just-edgy-enough celebrity casting: Vincent Cassel, Kylie Jenner, Spanish pop singer Rosalía, Hunter Schafer, Emma Watson, Johannson and Anderson all sat in a line. Social media engagements for the show totalled 250,000 according to analysts at Bernstein, 85 percent of those driven by much larger rival Gucci.

While many marketing chiefs increasingly seek hyper-visibility across channels throughout the year, Bertelli is wary of boring audiences with constant ubiquity. “I’m in favour of doing huge stuff… But if it’s all the time, if you have too many peaks, then it becomes just flat,” he said, drawing a sort of “buzz” chart in the air with his finger. “Contrasts are important.”

The Future of Prada
Looking ahead, Prada is hoping higher-than-ever sales will create a virtuous cycle, allowing it to invest more than ever in fuelling growth. The biggest priority, Bertelli says, will be to invest in bigger, more contemporary stores that allow it to show off the breadth of its offering, including new divisions like fine jewellery, launched in 2021, and homeware, a pet project of Bertelli père, a designer furniture fanatic who worked to relaunch the category last year.

Even with a succession plan and regency in place, whether the Prada-Bertellis might ever sell the brand or merge with another company remains a target of intense speculation.
The biggest priority, Bertelli says, will be to invest in bigger, more contemporary stores that allow it to show off the breadth of its offering. (Lea Colombo for BoF)

Ultimately, despite a return to strong growth since the pandemic Prada remains in the same bind as all listed independents in the luxury goods business, where the unprecedented scale and ultra-high margins of sector-leader LVMH and its flagship brand Louis Vuitton make it increasingly difficult to compete for market share. Like other stand-alones such as Burberry, Prada faces pressure to balance investing in growth with preserving margins.

Recent moves like the refresh of its executive ranks, making the brand less founder-dependent, and exploring a second listing on the Milan Bourse — which would likely boost the company’s valuation — have left some wondering whether the family truly sees the younger Bertelli as a long-term solution, or if they are dressing the company up for a lucrative sale.

Aside from putting forward its succession plan, the family hasn’t done much to quiet speculation regarding such a possible move: In a 2021 interview, Patrizio Bertelli told BoF that remaining independent “is not the first objective we would have in mind… Eventually you can own a smaller slice of a bigger cake.”

In July, the younger Bertelli dismissed sale speculation — while preserving a just enough ambiguity too keep potential acquirers on the line: “We’re not going to sell, for now,” Lorenzo said. “Of course I mean ‘for now’ in the Italian way — it’s more of a superstition.”

>>> US Close Dow -1,29% S&P -1,37% Nasdaq -1,87% Russell -1,69%

Closing Stock Market Summary
Stocks struggled amidst rising market rates again today. An early bounce attempt in both the stock and bond markets quickly faded as yields shot higher in response to the release of the August JOLTS - Job Openings data at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed a sharp increase in job openings compared to July (to 9.610 mln from 8.920 mln), which reflected ongoing strength in the tight labor market. The 2-yr note yield, which stood at 5.08% just before the data, settled four basis points higher than yesterday at 5.14%. The 10-yr note yield, which was at 4.70% before the data, settled at 4.80%, which is 12 basis points higher than yesterday.

The jump in rates fueled concerns about valuations and increased competition for stocks posed by higher-yielding, risk-free alternatives. Another point of concern for stock market participants is how quickly rates have moved up. The 10-yr note yield is up 71 basis points since the start of September and the 2-yr note yield is up 29 basis points over the same time frame, presumably pressured by factors other than pressing inflation concerns.

Worries about the budget deficit and attendant supply issues to fund the growing deficit in the face of softening demand have been touted as one of the main factors driving yields higher.

Broad based losses today were paced by growth stocks and mega caps. The Russell 3000 Growth Index fell 1.9% and the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) dropped 1.9% versus a 1.4% for the market-cap weighted S&P 500 and a 1.2% decline for the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP). Decliners had a better than 5-to-1 lead over advancers at the NYSE and a better than 7-to-2 lead at the Nasdaq.

Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors registered declines. The utilities sector (+1.2%) was alone in the green after plunging nearly 5.0% yesterday while the consumer discretionary sector (-2.6%) sported the largest decline followed by real estate (-1.9%), information technology (-1.8%), and financials (-1.7%).

In other news, the U.S. Dollar Index hit 107.35 immediately after the JOLTS data, but pulled back from its best levels and settled at 106.99 amid speculation Japan's Ministry of Finance intervened to stem the yen's weakness. USD/JPY, at 150.16 earlier, was down 0.7% to 148.79.

Also, the market was digesting news throughout the day regarding a motion to dismiss Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker of the House.

The CBOE Volatility Index jumped 13.5% to 20.02.
  • Nasdaq Composite: +24.8% YTD
  • S&P 500: +10.2% YTD
  • S&P Midcap 400: -0.1% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.4% YTD
  • Russell 2000: -1.9% YTD
Wednesday's economic calendar features:
  • 7:00 ET: Weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior -1.3%)
  • 8:15 ET: September ADP Employment Change ( consensus 150,000; prior 177,000)
  • 9:45 ET: Final September S&P Global U.S. Services PMI (prior 50.5)
  • 10:00 ET: August Factory Orders ( consensus 0.3%; prior -2.1%) and September ISM Non-Manufacturing Index (consensus 53.7%; prior 54.5%)
  • 10:30 ET: Weekly crude oil inventories (prior -2.17 mln)

>>> Intel to separate its Programmable Solutions Group operations into a standal

Intel to separate its Programmable Solutions Group operations into a standalone business, starting on January 1, 2024
  • Co announces its intent to separate its Programmable Solutions Group (PSG) operations into a standalone business. This will give PSG the autonomy and flexibility it needs to fully accelerate its growth and more effectively compete in the FPGA industry, which serves a broad array of markets, including the data center, communications, industrial, automotive, aerospace and defense sectors.
  • Intel also announced that Sandra Rivera, executive vice president at Intel, will assume leadership of PSG as chief executive officer; Shannon Poulin has been named chief operating officer.
  • Standalone operations for PSG are expected to begin Jan. 1, 2024, with ongoing support from Intel. Intel expects to report PSG as a separate business unit when it releases first-quarter 2024 financials.
  • Over the next two to three years, Intel intends to conduct an IPO for PSG and may explore opportunities with private investors to accelerate the business's growth, with Intel retaining a majority stake.
  • The two companies will remain strategically aligned, including continuing PSG's relationship with Intel Foundry Services (IFS), as they work together to address key areas of the FPGA market.

WWD : Chanel RTW Spring 2024

Chanel RTW Spring 2024
Virginie Viard's beach-ready collection was inspired by the modernist Villa Noailles in the South of France.


VIEW GALLERY72 PHOTOS
Chanel RTW Spring 2024


Coco Chanel pretty much wrote the book on French girl style. The designer was the first to popularize the sailor top and is credited with inventing both the Little Black Dress and the modern-day tweed jacket.

Designers galore still trade off that look, so it made sense that Virginie Viard’s spring collection read like an ABC of Parisian chic.

The display was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Villa Noailles, the modernist home built by art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles in the South of France. Chanel and the couple moved in the same circles, befriending artists such as Pablo Picasso, Man Ray and Jean Cocteau.

Chanel is a major sponsor of the centenary, which comes with a raft of cultural activities, including an exhibition dedicated to the wardrobe of Marie-Laure de Noailles, set to open next week, that features reproductions of three Chanel designs from the 1930s.

Viard doesn’t take her inspirations too literally, so there was not much of a retro theme to her lineup. Instead, she focused on the essence of what Chanel and her circle stood for: a sense of freedom that was reflected in designs that could easily walk off the catwalk and onto the street — or better still, the beach.

“A theme nourishes the imagination, but we’re talking about today. There is no Coco Chanel and no Man Ray,” she said in a preview. “I always try to portray a woman who is free and comfortable in her own skin, with a little twist of eccentricity or sophistication.”

Viard opened with a caftan-like tweed tunic in a TV static check, but quickly moved on to more summery fare. Sailor tops came in all sorts of guises, from a traditional striped version paired with white leather pants, ballet flats, a quilted handbag and pearls, to dressier black versions in sheer chiffon or a nubby knit.
Chanel RTW Spring 2024
GIOVANNI GIANNONI/WWD
A fine white knit vest and black knit skirt, with panels that tied in front like a sweater, may not deliver runway fireworks, but will surely sell like hot cakes. Ditto for the jeans and flip flops, striped terrycloth jackets and dressing gown coats that had an uncomplicated appeal.
Collection Gallery72 PHOTOS


Her minimalist evening looks also delivered, from a monochrome maxidress in sunray pleats to a series of sheer black gowns.

At Chanel’s 19M campus, Viard has some of the world’s most skilled specialty studios at her fingertips, and she made full use of their craftsmanship with items like a tweed suit in a grid pattern inspired by the Cubist checkered gardens at Villa Noailles, a Bauhaus-inspired villa designed by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens.

A floral trim on the jacket and an asymmetric hem added depth to the Barbie pink look, but other times, Viard got lost in decorative effects. A pencil skirt with fussy geometric embroidery was paired with a striped gold Lurex cardigan, a vest embroidered with graphic black camellias and sparkly shoes — a mashup that made for a definite case of visual overload.

Having said that, a look at Chanel’s front row indicates that it caters to one of the widest demographics of any luxury label. A mature customer probably isn’t looking for a striped Breton top and ballet flats, as cool as they might be, but might gravitate toward the trippy floral prints.

The cultural aura around the brand gives it added cachet. Chanel not only sponsors leading institutions such as the Paris Opera, but also fosters emerging talents. At the upcoming Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories, held annually at the Villa Noailles, it is extending its support to encompass the main photography prize.

“This cultural dimension also nourishes the imaginary world of the collections and therefore trickles down into the product,” Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS, told WWD.

Chanel RTW Spring 202472 PHOTOS


He revealed that the brand has renovated Coco Chanel’s villa La Pausa on the French Riviera and plans to reopen it next year with a program of cultural events.

“It will be a way of restoring the villa to what it was, that is to say a kind of artists’ house,” he said. “For me, it has nothing to do with nostalgia. On the contrary, it’s a way to project ourselves into the culture of tomorrow.”

FT : Russian rouble falls past 100 to dollar after boost from higher interest ra

Russian rouble falls past 100 to dollar after boost from higher interest rates fades
Currency extends losses as sanctions weigh on export revenues

The rouble sank beyond 100 to the US dollar on Tuesday, confounding Russian authorities’ attempts to halt a steep decline this year and pushing it close to levels hit in August.

Russia’s currency has lost nearly a quarter of its value since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as western sanctions weigh on export revenues and widen the country’s budget deficit.

The rouble last broke through the 100 mark in August, sparking alarm on state media and forcing the central bank into an emergency interest rate rise of 3.5 percentage points. A further rate increase of 1 percentage point — to 13 per cent — and talk of capital controls have failed to halt the currency’s decline.

The Kremlin tried to shrug off the rouble’s fall, claiming its weakness was a fact of life.

“There are certain fluctuations. We live in the rouble zone, so this excess attention to the dollar rate may happen from an emotional standpoint, but it’s essentially an element of the past,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

“We need to get used to living in the rouble zone and not feel so dependent on the dollar rate,” he added, according to Interfax. “There is no reason to be alarmed.”


Analysts said the latest losses were due to the end of the favourable month-end tax period, which prompts exporters to convert foreign currency revenues to pay local liabilities and tends to temporarily support the currency.

A ban on exports of diesel and petrol that Moscow imposed in September to counter rising energy prices in Russia and which led to a decline in foreign currency inflows has also put pressure on the rouble.

“The demand for foreign currency in Russia remains much higher than the supply,” said Natalia Lavrova, chief economist at BCS Global Markets. “Companies need the currency for imports and to buy assets of foreign businesses that want to withdraw from the Russian market, while foreign currency remains attractive as a savings vehicle for consumers.”

A weaker currency fuels inflation by making imports more expensive. The 100 roubles per dollar threshold carries a particular psychological importance for Russian consumers. Breaching that level in August sparked rare public disagreements among top Russian officials, while a news agency said its ticker was hacked after a message was displayed insulting Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

The rouble’s current decline comes at a time when policymakers are particularly sensitive to public opinion, as Putin is widely expected to soon announce he will take part in the presidential election coming up next year.

Putin last month expressed concern over the impact a weak rouble has on the country’s inflation levels. “It is obvious that one of the main issues right now is accelerating inflation,” he said.

“The main factor here is clear — it is the weakening of the rouble, and it is necessary to understand the causes behind this, and to make appropriate decisions without delay.”


The government is discussing further measures to halt the rouble’s slide, including forms of capital controls such as limiting bank transfers abroad or creating a “Chinese-style membrane between the onshore and offshore rouble markets”, as the Ministry of Economic Development proposed in late September.

If enacted, the proposals would mark the first time Russia has tightened currency controls since the early weeks when Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and would indicate growing anxiety over the country’s economic prospects.

The central bank, which switched from a policy of targeting the exchange rate to a focus on inflation in 2014, has opposed the proposal. But its own instruments to limit the rouble’s slide are limited.

The economic development ministry, whose forecasts lay the basis for the country’s budget, expects the rouble to recover to an average of 90.1 per dollar in 2024, according to its most recent projections released last month. Most Russian market analysts and economists expect it to be in a range between Rbs89 and Rbs105 per dollar.

Challenges : Les confidences de Rami Baitiéh après son départ de Carrefour Franc

Les confidences de Rami Baitiéh après son départ de Carrefour France
Par Guillaume Echelard le 03.10.2023 à 08h00

EXCLUSIF - Un mois après son départ de la direction générale de Carrefour France, Rami Baitiéh, qui prendra la tête de l'enseigne Morrisons au Royaume-Uni au début du mois de novembre, se confie à Challenges sur les raisons de son départ. Et sur ses nouveaux défis de l'autre côté de la Manche.


L'étoile montante du groupe Carrefour, le dirigeant de la transformation, l'influenceur omniprésent sur le réseau social LinkedIn... Depuis des années, le nom de Rami Baitiéh est sur toutes les lèvres dans le petit monde hexagonal de la grande distribution. Autant dire que l'annonce de son départ de la tête du deuxième distributeur français fin août a suscité l'étonnement, puis l'attente. Mais Rami Baitiéh n'est pas resté bien longtemps sans donner de nouvelles. Le 28 septembre, l'ancien directeur général de Carrefour France annonçait sur LinkedIn prendre la tête de Morrisons, le numéro cinq de la distribution alimentaire au Royaume-Uni.

Evidemment, on ne pouvait pas résister à l'envie de lui demander quelques explications. Quelques échanges de messages plus tard, rendez-vous est fixé le 2 octobre à midi pour un échange par téléphone pour comprendre les raisons du départ surprise de celui qui - pendant 27 ans - a été fidèle à Carrefour. Et qui dans un mois prendra la tête d'un nom emblématique du commerce britannique, fondé en 1899.

Besoin d'évolution
"Je continue à me reposer mais je me prépare aussi, raconte Rami Baitiéh. Je me documente, je cherche à connaître la culture, les sociétés - la société britannique comme la société Morrisons", sourit-il. Ne regrette-t-il pas Carrefour, cette maison qui l'a hébergé pendant près de trois décennies ? "J’ai besoin de défis, de continuer à apprendre et progresser, répond Rami Baitiéh. Cela fait partie de mes valeurs. A Carrefour, j’ai fait ce qu’il fallait faire. J’ai des résultats qui sont là. Alors, en parfait alignement avec la boîte qui m’a formé, j'ai pris cette décision". Celle aussi de s'émanciper de devenir pleinement dirigeant d'une entreprise, lui qui jusqu'à maintenant était resté sous la direction du PDG de Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard. Passer un palier, un indispensable pour celui qui reste rarement plus de trois ans au même poste.

Certains voient d'ailleurs dans le départ de Rami Baitiéh le fruit d'un désaccord avec le PDG de l'entreprise sur la politique prix de Carrefour France, jugée trop chère par l'ancien directeur général. "Dire que je serais parti à cause de la politique prix serait exagéré", répond-il, sans nier pour autant de possibles désaccords, lui qui rêvait d'appliquer à 100% la politique de prix qui avait fait son succès dans d'autres pays du groupe Carrefour. Mais Rami Baitiéh ne s'épanche pas sur les éventuels différends de la fin de son aventure avec la société du Cac 40.

"Je suis loyal à Alexandre Bompard"
Et choisit plutôt de se rappeler ce qu'il a apporté : la méthode 5-5-5, axée sur quinze points clés de la relation avec les clients ; l'école des leaders pour accélérer la promotion sociale au sein de l'entreprise ; la méthode "Maxi" dans les hypermarchés qui vise à simplifier et rendre plus lisible leur offre ; le projet Top qui vise à spécialiser les équipes des hypermarchés. "On peut être fier", conclut-il, donnant sa bénédiction à son successeur, Alexandre de Palmas. Entre 2020 et 2022, le chiffre d'affaires de Carrefour France est passé de 34 milliards à 42 milliards d'euros ; le résultat opérationnel courant, lui, est passé de 629 à 834 millions d'euros. Beaucoup voyaient dans le natif du Liban un successeur naturel à Alexandre Bompard. Lui balaye : "Ce n’est pas vous qui décidez de cela au sein d'une entreprise." Mais il refuse toute polémique : "Je suis loyal, très proche d’Alexandre Bompard. C’est lui qui m’a fait évoluer."

Rami Baitiéh préfère regarder devant lui. D'autant qu'il va y avoir du travail : à Morrisons, la situation n'est pas évidente. L'entreprise a vécu un changement d'actionnariat mouvementé, après une bataille impitoyable remportée par le fonds Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Elle a alors racheté les plus de 1.000 boutiques des magasins de proximité McColl. Mais Morrisons reste à la peine en termes de parts de marché, récemment doublé par Aldi. Certes, son chiffre d'affaires progresse, gonflé par l'inflation ; mais il progresse moins vite que celui de ses concurrents. "Le private equity vole-t-il l’âme du supermarché Morrisons ?", se demandait le Guardian en février 2023.

Le tout nouveau dirigeant, lui, assume une première phase d'observation de ce distributeur original qui - à la manière d'Intermarché en France - produit lui-même une bonne partie de ses articles de marque propre. "La première piste que j’ai, c’est de comprendre la culture, le client, les salariés", explique-t-il. En mode "éponge". Avant d'ouvrir ses valises remplies des concepts et des projets en tous genres dont il a le secret ?