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The accessible luxury group plans to roll out full product traceability across Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and Fursac by 2025

PARIS — To meet its goal of offering full product traceability across its portfolio of brands by 2025, SMCP has partnered with French mission-driven startup Fairly Made, it announced on Wednesday.

The owner of the Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and De Fursac labels will roll out a pilot program with spring 2022 deliveries, with information on some 40 references per brand accessible through each item’s product pages on e-commerce sites.

In-store labels with QR codes will follow later, giving access to information such as manufacturing location, the number of kilometers an item has traveled and where materials come from.

Fairly Made, which was founded in 2018 as a sustainable sourcing and manufacturing company by French entrepreneurs Camille Le Gall and Laure Betsch, has been tasked with collecting information from all of SMCP’s suppliers through the production chain to calculate a traceability score.

SMCP’s chief executive officer Isabelle Guichot stated the project, part of the group’s One Journey strategic roadmap, was a major step in “reducing our carbon footprint and continuously improving our supply chain while offering greater transparency” and would be “a valuable tool for analyzing and optimizing our sourcing around the world.”

The accessible luxury player continues to be embroiled in a dispute between former majority owner European TopSoho, a division of ailing Chinese apparel firm Shandong Ruyi, and GLAS, the trustee that has owned a 29 percent stake in SMCP since European TopSoho defaulted on bonds last September.

In January, its shareholders voted to dismiss five board members representing European TopSoho. They were replaced by three independent directors, including seasoned executive and former CEO of Unibail Rodamco Westfield Christophe Cuvillier, later appointed chairman of the company’s board.

SMCP’s 2021 full-year results will be announced on March 9. Last October, it had indicated confidence in its ability to reach sales of 1 billion euros despite a slowdown in sales growth in the third quarter.

LVMH chief Bernard Arnault inaugurated the two specialized leather goods workshops in the presence of French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

VENDOME, France — Louis Vuitton has reinforced its commitment to using exotic skins in its handbags, with the official inauguration on Tuesday of its two most recent leather goods workshops in France.

Against the backdrop of the French presidential election campaign and the deepening crisis over Russia’s troop movements in Ukraine, a sizable media contingent turned out for the ceremony, attended by Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Louis Vuitton chairman and CEO Michael Burke and French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

Illustrating the strong links between Arnault, the world’s third richest man, and the government of French President Emmanuel Macron, who is preparing to announce his bid for reelection, Le Maire spent four hours touring the workshops in Azé and Vendôme, in the Loir-et-Cher region in central France that is home to a number of historic castles.

The minister donned white cotton gloves to pick up a crocodile leather Capucines handbag in a dégradé of silver and gold, as he listened attentively to an employee explain part of the production process, which requires 350 steps.

“I salute the worldwide success of LVMH, which is good for France,” Le Maire said, noting that the group has recruited 1,800 artisans over the last five years. “You can see here that each employee takes real pride in making these Vuitton bags, in defending this French excellence which is more about craftsmanship than industry.”

LVMH spent between 15 million euros and 20 million euros to buy and restore the historic Abbaye building in Vendôme, which dates back to the 11th century and variously housed a Benedictine monastery and a cavalry regiment. The four-story structure has been open since September 2020, but its inauguration was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Oratoire workshop in neighboring Azé, meanwhile, is being touted as the first industrial building of its type in France, with an eco-design that cuts energy consumption by half compared with a classic Vuitton leather goods workshop.

The two sites, which employ 150 people but will eventually house 500, specialize in bags made from exotic skins such as crocodile, ostrich and python leather, joining three other Vuitton workshops in France with similar skills. The Oratoire site, operational since October, also produces prototypes and other types of bags, such as the Onthego tote in monogram canvas.

Arnault, who was flanked by his son Frédéric, CEO of watchmaker Tag Heuer, touted the remarkable growth of Vuitton, noting that when he took over the company in 1987, it had just three leather goods workshops. By the end of 2022, it will have 19.

“Since then, the sales volume at Louis Vuitton has multiplied by 30,” he said in a speech to staff at the Abbaye Vendôme site, crediting the highly skilled workers for the success of the company. “LVMH is a family-run group and when you join LVMH, when you join Vuitton, you don’t join an anonymous company, you join a family,” he told them.

The inauguration comes 10 days after 240 workers at three Vuitton workshops staged a walkout over pay and working conditions. Although they represented just 5 percent of staff within the leather goods division, the protest revived public debate about whether entry-level employees at luxury goods firms, which are thriving despite the pandemic, are receiving their fair share of benefits.

While rival Hermès revealed last week it would pay out a bonus of 3,000 euros to its nearly 18,000 employees following a year of “exceptional” growth, LVMH capped off six months of negotiations with its leather goods workers with a deal last week that raises their salary by 7 percent and reduces their average work week to 33 hours from 35 hours.

Arnault noted that employees who qualify for a share of benefits earn on average the equivalent of 18 months of salary. “Louis Vuitton employees are among the happiest and best-paid, which makes them loyal. That’s our contribution to purchasing power and job security,” he told reporters. “When you join Vuitton, you want to stay.”

Vuitton’s arrival in Vendôme has helped to attract other luxury manufacturers, such as porcelain maker Marie Daâge, local officials reported. The town was formerly home to tanneries and supplied gloves to the French royal court during the rule of Renaissance King Francis I, but in recent years it has specialized in the production of metal parts for industries such as cars and aeronautics.

Burke said LVMH has increased its investments in exotic leathers, in contrast to rival French luxury firm Chanel, which said in 2018 it was halting the use of leathers including crocodile, lizard, snake and stingray. Animal rights activist group PETA has regularly called on LVMH and Hermès to follow suit.

“We believe that done in a sustainable fashion, this is an extremely important trade to maintain, because if we don’t maintain this trade, the making of objects in this exotic skin, these animals will disappear,” Burke argued.

“If you do not buy these hides, their habitat becomes much more valuable as real estate development,” he continued.

“The only way for that land to remain in its natural state is to have that land have value, and the highest value that this land can have is producing crocodile or alligator eggs, which we then buy for about $50 apiece. And for every 100 we buy, a year later, we have to release 10 one-year-old alligators and crocodiles back into nature, which is what has brought the species back from near extinction,” he said.

By the end of 2022, 100 percent of crocodile skins used to make Louis Vuitton bags will come from farms certified according to the standard introduced by LVMH in 2019, which strengthened the traceability requirements for tanneries. This compares with 93 percent currently. The group’s Heng Long tannery in Singapore sources its skins from farms in Australia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and the U.S.

In addition to setting up shop at the historic site, Vuitton — which has a flagship and high jewelry atelier on Place Vendôme in Paris — struck a deal with local authorities to use the Vendôme name for its jewelry collections.

LVMH said it will continue to expand its production capacities, with plans to recruit 1,000 people by the end of 2024. Touting the group as an example to follow, Le Maire said the government was committed to raising industry’s share of national wealth to 20 percent in the next few years, from 12 to 13 percent currently, by making France more competitive.

He noted that Macron had already lowered production and corporate taxes, and pledged to cut business taxes by a further 10 billion euros to 15 billion euros. “The real battle for industrial recovery is not just a question of taxes,” Le Maire said. “We will achieve the reindustrialization of France only by recognizing the value of training, manual work and apprenticeship.”

Leo Rongone outlined his strategies for the company as the luxury brand surpassed sales of 1.5 billion euros in 2021 and returns to Milan Fashion Week where the first collection by Matthieu Blazy will bow on Feb. 26

MILAN — Bottega Veneta is “a magical brand,” believes chief executive officer Bartolomeo Rongone, who goes by the name of Leo.

However, there are no supernatural powers behind the growth of the brand, which in 2021 logged a 24.2 percent increase in revenues compared with 2020, surpassing the 1.5 billion euro mark. Compared with 2019, revenues rose 32 percent.

Rongone attributed the success to the “exquisite design with extraordinary craft” of the products and the company’s ability to maintain a strong, intimate relationship with clients and customers alike throughout “the challenging period and despite the impact of the pandemic,” creating different physical “moments of contact.”

“I am very proud of this milestone, reached through a solid strategy and a long-term perspective,” he said of the 2021 benchmark.

In the last quarter of 2021, sales increased 15.2 percent to 433 million euros. Compared with the same period in 2019, they climbed 31 percent.

In 2021, operating profit amounted to 286.5 million euros, up 66.6 percent on 2020 and representing 19.1 percent of sales.

For fall, the brand is returning to Milan Fashion Week — a highly anticipated show also because it will unveil the first designs by Matthieu Blazy, who was named creative director in November, succeeding Daniel Lee.

Rongone revealed that the show on Saturday will be held in Milan’s Palazzo San Fedele, which is expected to house the company’s new headquarters before the end of 2023. Originally the site of the Manzoni theater, the building, which stands near the Duomo cathedral and the La Scala theater, was built circa 1870 and is currently being restored.

“Matthieu really wanted this location precisely because of the theater, its energy and heritage,” Rongone said.

Bottega Veneta has been absent from Milan for a few seasons, as Lee previously held shows in London, Berlin and Detroit. “Matthieu and I are proud to be back and we are convinced we should be here. This is a global brand, not only connected to Italy, but the Camera della Moda as well as the Chambre Syndicale and the other councils are putting together an audience, exposing multiple brands and making sure a connection is preserved, giving visibility to young designers and we want to be supportive of creativity,” Rongone explained.

Asked about the changes in the top creative spot after Lee’s surprise exit after three years — deemed by several sources as a layoff — Rongone enthused about the pieces of the fall collection he had already seen. “I’m excited, Matthieu has such a wealth of experience, having worked at Celine [with Phoebe Philo], with Raf [Simons at Calvin Klein], and at [Maison] Margiela. He is a very curious person, has a broad cultural background and is a real creative talent.”

Blazy joined the company in 2020 as the brand’s ready-to-wear design director and Rongone believes he is “ready for the challenge, he is in the perfect position. He knows the brand, the codes of the house and the heritage.”

That said, the executive underscored that Bottega Veneta should “not be linked to a single person, the brand stems from the passion of a collective group of people. It is a very inclusive brand with exclusive product.”

The executive has further driven the exclusivity of the brand by eliminating all markdowns. “We aim to be one of the few companies that provide lifetime warranty for products that customers will treasure and appreciate for a long time,” he said.

Rongone has been streamlining the brand’s wholesale accounts — increasing the number of concessions and also taking over online partners.

Last year, retail accounted for 75 percent of total sales, up 29 percent compared with the previous year. The wholesale channel grew 16 percent.

Rongone did not disclose a percentage for e-commerce, as per company policy, although he noted that it has grown.

Bottega Veneta has 263 directly operated stores and the CEO said the company is not focused on increasing that number significantly but rather is investing in expanding the existing venues to better display the growing apparel category for both men and women — “the fastest-growing category in these years,” he said.

The stores will be refreshed with a new concept but differentiated depending on the location, but always with a link with Bottega Veneta’s territory, hence the use of Palladiana floors, terracotta and glass.

Asia Pacific represents the biggest market for the company, accounting for 39 percent of total sales last year. Rongone touted China’s “huge potential.” A new boutique will open in Shenzhen in May, followed by a unit in Shanghai at Pudong Airport in July. The Shanghai IFC store will be refurbished in September.

South Korea was also a key contributor to growth.

Western Europe represented 24 percent of sales. London’s Sloane Square unit and the Paris boutique in Avenue Montaigne will be renovated and expanded in 2022.

North America accounted for 18 percent of the total. “Since I joined, the U.S. has become one of the fastest-growing markets, gaining speed as in 2018 it represented 11 percent of the total,” said Rongone, adding that a store in Dallas will open in December and the existing San Francisco store will be refurbished in June. Bottega Veneta opened a store in Manhattan’s SoHo in December last year.

Japan, a historically significant market for the brand, represented 10 percent of the total, and the rest of the world 9 percent.

Rongone, who joined the Kering-owned company in September 2019, was previously COO of Saint Laurent in charge of rtw, leather goods and shoes, as well as global retail operations and client engagement. He arrived at Bottega Veneta at a time of rapid change for the brand, which the year before had hired Lee to succeed Tomas Maier after 17 years as its creative director.

Rongone began his career as a market analyst in the luxury sector and joined Fendi in 2001, becoming head of business intelligence before taking on senior roles in the supply chain, merchandise planning and client relationship management.

He has been building his team, tapping, for example, Alejandra Rositto last October as CEO of the Americas. Asked about what he looks for in a candidate, he said that “apart from competence, passion is a key component, as well as trust and empathy.”

The executive is passionate about Bottega Veneta’s “fascinating story” and believes that it’s been “largely untold.”

Archival photos — including one of Lauren Hutton, who famously carried a Bottega Veneta clutch in the 1980 film “American Gigolo” — hang on the walls of his luminous office, juxtaposed with new pieces and colorful, modern furniture.

During the interview, Rongone underscored how since the early days, when Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro founded the company in 1966, Bottega Veneta has “always celebrated the uniqueness of each individual.” This is something that the executive believes remains relevant to the brand — obviously reflected in its catchphrase “When your own initials are enough,” which has been defining Bottega Veneta’s customer since its origins. When the individual is at the center, no logo is necessary, underscored Rongone.

Shortly after Zengiaro left Bottega Veneta at the end of the ‘70s, Taddei handed over the company to his ex-wife Laura Braggion, who headed the company with her second husband Vittorio Moltedo and traveled regularly to New York. Rongone recalled that Braggion became an assistant of Andy Warhol, whose studios made the short film “Bottega Veneta Industrial Videotape” in 1985, and she contributed to the expansion and the success of the brand in the U.S., opening the first store there in New York in 1972.

In addition to its distinctive leather weaving design, the Intrecciato, the “Bottega green” that has become a signature color for the brand has also been a long-standing reference, noted Rongone. “The Veneto and Venice territory inspires us, the Palladiana and terracotta flooring, the colors of Burano and the glasses of Murano, connect the Genius Loci and become incredible vehicles of energy.” The facade of the brand’s Vienna store was green back in 1993 and in the Warhol film, there are dust bags that, at the time, were in the same green color.

Rongone enthused about Bottega Veneta’s archives at the company’s headquarters in Montebello, near Vicenza. A school to train new artisans remains active there.

“True luxury requires time, we think in terms of days, not hours when we make each bag at this complex level of craft,” he said, in a constant balance between craft and creativity, pointing to the brand’s storied coat of arms, which says “labor and ingenium” or craft and creativity in Latin.

Asked about a potential price increase, he admitted the rising costs of energy “could lead to an increase, but we will see” throughout the year. He underscored the company uses “extremely expensive and prestigious materials,” so that an increase could be less tied to external factors and more to a further increase in quality.

In terms of product extension, Rongone said 2023 will be “very important” for the launch of new fragrances and he predicted that a home and furniture line “will be back pretty soon. We take pride in all our collections and make sure that each is perfect and beautifully designed. We are confident we can deliver the level of quality and emotion [the brand promises].”

He said he was “very satisfied” with the results of the eyewear collections produced by Kering Eyewear, but noted that “we don’t think by category,” rather of products that “can complement or express” the brand.

While Bottega Veneta under Lee dropped off Instagram last year, Rongone said the decision allowed the company “to use social media in a different way, giving the audience the opportunity to talk about us, removing the limit of our presence, but we are not absent, there is a connection through people talking about us.” He contended that this allows “concrete expressions of creativity in different ways.”

By the first half of the year, the company will release a new website with a new design, he revealed.

In other projects, the company will sponsor the Biennale Danza, the international festival of contemporary dance, for the second consecutive year. It will run in Venice July 22 to 31 and will be directed by Wayne McGregor.

In parallel, Bottega Veneta is also partnering with the Palazzo Grassi Punta della Dogana Pinault Collection to support “Dancing Studies,“ a set of performances by choreographers William Forsythe, Lenio Kaklea, Ralph Lemon and Pam Tanowitz, inspired by the exhibition “Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies.” The exhibition is open to the public until Nov. 27. “Dancing Studies” will be celebrated with a dinner hosted by Bottega Veneta and Palazzo Grassi during the opening week of the Biennale di Arte on April 21.

Also, Bottega Veneta has chosen to partner with the Festival de Hyères for the first time this year. That will run Oct. 14 to 16. With the Bottega Veneta grant, the house aims to support creativity in all its forms and will award the winner of the Photography Grand Prix the opportunity to collaborate on one of the brand’s campaigns.

Waymo, the autonomous driving arm of Alphabet, was granted a win on Tuesday when a California court ruled it could keep certain details regarding its AV technology secret.

The company filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Motor Vehicles in late January in order to keep some information about its autonomous vehicle deployment permit, as well as emails between the DMV and the company, redacted from a public record request, which was originally filed by an undisclosed third party.

The ruling by the California Superior Court, Sacramento could set a precedent for broader trade secret protection, at least in the autonomous vehicle industry, involving public access to information that has to do with public safety, but which businesses claim contain trade secrets.

In its lawsuit, Waymo argued being forced to reveal trade secrets would undermine its investments into automated driving technology and have a “chilling effect across the industry” where the DMV is no longer a safe space for companies to transparently share information about their tech.

“We’re pleased that the court reached the right decision in granting Waymo’s request for a preliminary injunction, precluding the disclosure of competitively-sensitive trade secrets that Waymo had included in the permit application it submitted to the CA DMV,” a Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We will continue to openly share safety and other data on our autonomous driving technology and operations, while recognizing that detailed technical information we share with regulators is not always appropriate for sharing with the public.”

Like any other autonomous driving technology company looking to test and deploy in California, Waymo had to submit information about its safety practices and technology to the DMV, which then followed up with more specific questions. When the DMV received the public records request for Waymo’s permit application information, the agency gave Waymo the chance to censor any sections it deemed might reveal trade secrets. Waymo did so, and the DMV sent the package to the third party with major portions blocked out. The requester challenged the blackouts, and the DMV, not wanting to get caught in the middle, advised Waymo to file a temporary retraining order against the DMV, according to Waymo. A judge then issued the restraining order on February 2, giving Waymo more time to seek an injunction prohibiting the disclosure of the material in unredacted form forevermore.

Waymo filed the lawsuit because it wants to protect details about how its AVs identify and navigate through certain conditions, how they determine the circumstances under which the AV will revert control to a human driver, when to provide support to an AV fleet, and how the company addresses disengagement incidents and collision incidents, according to the lawsuit.

“These R&D efforts take many years and an enormous financial investment,” reads Waymo’s declaration shared with the court. “Waymo’s AV development began as part of Google in 2009 before Waymo became its own company in 2016; therefore, Waymo’s AVs have been in development for more than 12 years. Waymo has invested truly significant amounts researching and developing its AV products.”

It is difficult, however, to determine whether or not the information actually contains trade secrets without being able to see any of it.

“The question is, can the company derive economic value purely from not sharing that information with others?” Matthew Wansley, former general counsel of nuTonomy (which Aptiv acquired) and a law professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York, told TechCrunch.

Software failures that detail problems perceiving objects or predicting how other agents in the world are going to behalf, for example, is highly confidential because it could reveal information about how the technology works, allowing competitors to either copy it or just assess where they are relative to a certain business, said Wansley. It makes sense, therefore, that a company wouldn’t want to share that information publicly. However, if a regulator wanted more information under the promise of confidentiality, Wansley said he’d be much more inclined to share because he trusts the regulator knows the tech isn’t perfect and is more concerned with reducing risk rather than bringing it down to zero.

“I looked through the complaint that Waymo filed, and the categories of information they’re talking about are pretty broad,” said Wansley. “Are there trade secrets in that set of information that they sent? Probably, there are some. Does it include all of the information they sent? Almost certainly not. The only thing that would surprise me is if everything they’re claiming is a trade secret is actually a trade secret. But without knowing the specific information that they share with regulators, it’s just hard to know.”

And now the public will never know. While the business community might find this outcome to be a success, the state of California and the public at large might have legitimate public safety concerns around autonomous vehicles, and they may not trust their regulators to be able to make decisions on their behalf.

AV technology is very complex and sophisticated and many regulators aren’t exactly engineers. Some would argue that the public has a right to verify if critical, public-facing decisions are being made properly via things like public hearings or academic studies.

“I think in some respects, this goes to the heart of how do you develop public confidence in public vehicles if it’s simply a black box?” Ryan Koppelman, an intellectual property litigation lawyer and partner at Alston & Bird, told TechCrunch. “And this is a fundamental issues with autonomous vehicles, where it’s really just, data in, data out, and the results indicate it’s safe. So companies will say you don’t need to know what’s happening in the black box, just know that it’s safe and trust us. And trust the DMV, which has peeked into the black box and signed off on it, and that should be good enough for the public.”

For its part, Waymo has pointed to the range of information it shares with the public to assuage any fears about its technology. For example, it publishes an AV safety report, has submitted a safety self-assessment to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and is publishing a law enforcement interaction guide and a detailed description of its safety methodologies.

Luxury carmaker plans to produce 10,000 cars a year by middle of decade

Aston Martin narrowed its losses last year as revenues climbed back above pre-pandemic levels, boosted by customer deposits for its high-price special cars and increased demand for its luxury sport utility vehicle.

Annual pre-tax losses at the luxury carmaker, which is in the middle of a five-year turnround plan under Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, shrank from £466mn to £213.8mn. That compared with a loss of £104mn in 2019, the year before the pandemic struck, and when the company was under its previous management.

Sales last year rose to £1.1bn from £611.8mn, while the average selling price for its cars climbed to £150,000, higher than both 2020 and 2019, helped by the DBX sport utility vehicle and more pricing discipline.

Aston expects that car sales will rise to more than 6,600 this year from 6,178 last year. It wants to produce 10,000 a year and generate £2bn in annual sales by the middle of the decade.

Stroll, who led a £540mn bailout of the company in April 2020, wants to restore Aston’s luxury credentials by removing excess cars from dealerships, taking the brand back into Formula One, and introducing a range of mid-engine cars to compete with Ferrari.

During the year the company booked £71mn from customer deposits on the open-roof version of its Valkyrie hypercar and for its Valhalla supercar.

The business was stung with £171mn financing costs compared with £75mn a year earlier, because of high-interest loans worth £1.1bn the company took out in October of 2020.

Stroll said this month he wants to begin paying back the loans when the business begins generating cash, which he expects next year.

In January, Aston said that delays to its £2.5mn Valkyrie hypercar would cost the business £15mn. It only delivered 10 models last year. On Wednesday, the company said it expects to produce between 75 and 90 of the cars this year, although said it is still fine-tuning the production process.

Dutch-based maker of Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler brands almost triples annual net profit to €13.4bn

Stellantis posted a higher than expected rise in profits and revenues for 2021 and beat its margin target, as it focused on its most profitable cars to ride out an industry-wide semiconductor shortage.

The Dutch-based group, created through the $50bn merger between Peugeot maker PSA and Fiat Chrysler, said it was advancing more rapidly than planned with cost savings derived from that deal, which had also boosted earnings.

Like rivals, Stellantis was affected by chip shortages just as it stepped up a push into producing more electric vehicles. Its car shipments in its core European market suffered as a result last year, although revenues in the region rose. Sales in North America, where it makes Jeep cars and Ram pickup trucks, also increased year on year.

Overall, pro forma revenues at the group rose 14 per cent from the previous year to €152bn, while net profit nearly tripled to €13.4bn. Stellantis’s adjusted operating margin was 11.8 per cent, above its 10 per cent goal for the year and up from 6.9 per cent a year earlier.

Stellantis, which recently unveiled plans to start exporting commercial vans from a factory in Russia, is due to present a business plan for the group next week, just over a year after the merger that made it the world’s fourth-biggest carmaker.