Revenues in the luxury sector are growing again, but the sharp fall in share prices has yet to be recouped
Cucinelli is a case in point: its share price is down 15 per cent since January, whilst sales are up 13 per cent – Since the start of the year, LVMH and Hermès have lost 40 per cent – The sector’s difficulties are not solely ‘down to’ China
Many sectors would be content – perhaps even genuinely satisfied – with the revenue and profitability figures for a significant proportion of listed luxury companies over the first nine months. In most cases, sales and profits have risen; in some others, sales have fallen or remained stable, whilst profits have slowed, though they remain positive. Only two cases – among the largest and best-known players in the high-end sector – remain less than enviable: Kering and Ferragamo, the latter of which, incidentally, has yet to find a CEO to replace Marco Gobbetti, who left the company in March 2025.
The French group is undergoing a turnaround that began with the arrival, in September 2025, of CEO Luca de Meo, and the benefits of the recovery plan outlined in April have yet to materialise: yesterday, Kering – one of the largest luxury groups after LVMH – saw its share price fall by 16.57 per cent. On Thursday, it announced that it had closed the January–September period with revenue down 2 per cent to 10.5 billion, with a worrying decline at Gucci, which is to Kering what Louis Vuitton is to LVMH.
It was in fact the group founded and still led today by Bernard Arnault, CEO and Chairman – and France’s richest man – that was the first to publish its figures for the first nine months, on 12 October (meaning that, for LVMH and all the others, the profitability figures are not yet available; we will see these in January alongside the full-year results). LVMH’s figures were the most eagerly awaited, as the company is the undisputed leader in the luxury sector, with revenues in 2025 approaching 80 billion, more than five times those of its rival Kering (14.7 billion) and 14 times those of the Prada Group (5.7 billion), the largest in Italia. The period closed with organic revenue growth of 2 per cent to 57.1 billion, a rate that fell to 1 per cent in the third quarter.
Three days after LVMH, it was Brunello Cucinelli’s turn; analysts went on to describe the brand as one that ‘plays in a different league’ (see *Il Sole 24 Ore*, 16 October). Not only did revenue reach 1.123 billion (+13.3 per cent organic growth, +13.5 per cent in the third quarter alone), but forecasts for the full financial year have also been revised upwards.
This week, in addition to Kering’s figures, results were released by Hermès, Moncler, Prada and Zegna. As summarised by Chiara Beghelli in yesterday’s edition of *Il Sole 24 Ore*, it can be said that the luxury sector is experiencing a slow recovery. Growth rates are not uniform, either by geographical area or by brand, within groups that have ‘crowded’ portfolios, but the figures are nonetheless positive. This is particularly true for Zegna, which is listed in New York and also owns Tom Ford and Thom Browne (+7.2 per cent to 1.42 billion in the first nine months, +8.9 per cent in the third quarter) and for Prada, listed in Hong Kong, which recorded organic growth of 4 per cent to 4.54 billion as at 30 September. Moncler, which also has Stone Island in its portfolio, is also performing well: organic growth of 6 per cent brought revenues to 1.89 billion, though there was a slowdown in the third quarter, linked – as the company reported – to a decline in China and negative tourist flows in the EMEA region. Hermès, a symbol of global luxury – understood also as exclusivity and craftsmanship – recorded a slowdown for the first time in six years, closing the first nine months at 4.1 billion (‘only’ +4.3 per cent compared with the January–September 2025 period, which had in turn exceeded the first nine months of 2024 by 10 per cent).
