The big names in the fashion world – Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, and Tiffany and Co. were brought under one umbrella of Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) by a man whose vision has made the company the first to achieve a $500 billion market value. The man behind is Bernard Arnault, CEO and Founder of LVMH.
Early Life
Bernard Arnault was born in Northern French town of Roubaix. He hailed from an elite Catholic household and attended a Catholic schools. The love for luxury brands ran in his family, his mother had a liking for Dior, and his father owned a civil engineering company – Ferret-Savinel, which Bernard took control over after completing his engineering from École Polytechnique. He later took over as the President of the company in from 1978-1984.
Career
This 74-year-old business genius ventured into the world of luxury fashion when he first acquired the parent company of Christian Dior for $15 million dollars. Arnault’s possession also had Boussac’s assets which included the department store Le Bon Marché, the retail shop Conforama, and the nappy manufacturer Peaudouce; all of which he won by winning a bid for Boussac Saint-Frères.
Bernard was known as “The Terminator” as he fired about 9000 employees in a span of two years and sold most of his company assests only keeping Dior and Le Bon Marché. He subsequently sold some of his Agache’s business to buy the fashion house Celine and provided funding to French designer, Christian Lacroix. Bernard’s business plan worked out as the company became profitable by 1987 with earnings worth $112 million on a revenue stream of $1.9 billion.
Bernard became a French business magnet and collaborated with Louis Vuitton’s President Henry Racamier and Moët Hennessy’s CEO Alain Chevalier to create Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) in 1987. Arnault is a business mastermind and played his cards right. To keep a check on the internal attempts between the partners to take control internally in 1989, he spent another $500 million to take control of a total of 43.5% of LVMH’s shares and 35% of its voting rights, thereby blocking the way to dismantle the group. He then stripped Racamier off of his power and became the elected chairman of the executive management board in 1989.
The company at present has a massive net worth of $240 billion which is Rs.19 lakhs crores with over 75 brands under its belt with products ranging from fashion, beauty, accessories, wine, fragrance and others.
Bernard has a fascination of art and possesses works of Picasso, Yves Klein, Henry Moore among many others. In 2006, Arnault started the building project solely dedicated to modern art, Louis Vuitton Foundation. Designed by Frank Gehry, this establishment opened its gates for the public in 2014 with a grand inauguration.
Luxurious Lifestyle
Apart from being a ruler of the luxury fashion empire, he lives in a palatial mansion worth Rs. 1648 crore, where he lives with his family, a super-yacht, one of the top 100 in the world, called Symphony.
The richest man in the world owns a vacation home in the coastal town of Saint-Tropez that is for ₹100 crores. He also owns lavish mansions in the beautiful French Alps and residential properties worth ₹794 crores in some of the poshest areas of the world, in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood Hills.
Private jets
Bernard owns a Dassault Falcon 7X, a private jet worth Rs 329 crore and it does not end here, as he sealed the deal for a 135 acre private island called Indigo Island in the Bahamas.