Cédric Charbit is appointed head of the famous French brand and Gianfranco Gianangeli will head the company founded in Spain.
The luxury group Kering, which is seeking to relaunch itself, announced on Monday the appointment of Cédric Charbit as general manager of Saint Laurent and Gianfranco Gianangeli as general manager of Balenciaga from January 2, 2025.
They will both report to Francesca Bellettini, deputy general director of Kering in charge of home development, who until then also held the position of general director of Saint Laurent, according to a press release from the group.
“These changes further strengthen our organization,” declares the group’s CEO François-Henri Pinault quoted in the press release.
“With Francesca Bellettini fully dedicated to her role” and Jean-Marc Duplaix as Group Deputy Managing Director for Operations and Finance, “we have the right management team in place to meet the current challenges of our sector and give the impetus for long-term growth,” he adds.
Cédric Charbit joined Kering in 2012 and has been CEO of Balenciaga since 2016. “Having worked for several French and Italian luxury houses,” Gianfranco Gianangeli was until now commercial director of Saint Laurent, according to the press release.
Francesca Bellettini, who increased sales of Saint Laurent during her time at the head of the brand, was appointed in 2023 deputy general director of Kering in charge of house development while remaining at the helm of Saint Laurent.
Kering, in difficulty for two years, has undertaken several changes in its management in recent months.
At the beginning of October, the group appointed Stefano Cantino, former executive of competitor LVMH, to the position of general manager of Gucci, the flagship brand of the group in great difficulty.
He will take office on January 1 and will succeed Jean-François Palus. The latter, close to Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault, was appointed in July 2023 as interim head of Gucci to take control of the brand and put it on the path to recovery.
Jean-Marc Duplaix – Kering’s financial director since 2012 – was appointed at the same time to the position of deputy general manager of the group in charge of operations and finance.
Kering continued its decline in the third quarter with sales down 15% year-on-year, weighed down by Gucci. The group has warned that its current operating profit, an indicator of profitability, could be almost halved and reach only 2.5 billion euros in 2024 compared to 4.7 billion euros in 2023, which would be the lowest level since 2016.
