Pietro Beccari: 'Louis Vuitton's ties with Italy growing stronger'

He heads the world's largest and most famous high-end brand, Louis Vuitton, spearhead of the world's largest luxury group, Lvmh. He is Italian from Parma, Pietro Beccari, but happily adopted - or at least co-opted - by France. Since 1 January, the manager, who was born in 1967, has also been CEO and president of the LVMH Fashion Group, the division of the colossus founded by Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, which groups together Celine, Givenchy, Kenzo, Loewe, Marc Jacobs, Patou and Pucci. In Lvmh Beccari has had the best teachers, from Yves Carcelle to Michael Burke, from Toni Belloni (another Italian) to Sidney Toledano: from each he has learnt a great deal, while remaining anchored to his joyful Emilian origins and, last but not least, his love of sport. Reconnecting Louis Vuitton and Lvmh with sailing is something he is very proud of.

The America's Cup is almost as old as the Louis Vuitton maison, founded in 1854, three years after the sailing trophy. The Louis Vuitton Cup, on the other hand, was born 'only' in 1983, but has witnessed remarkable technological developments in sailing. Is this what brought it back to the America's Cup ?

We are back as title sponsor of the Louis Vuitton Cup, which decides who, among the challengers, has the burden and honour of facing the team that holds the cup, due to a happy combination of the factors you mentioned. The long history, certainly: 175 years of the America's Cup, the oldest sporting trophy in the world, 172 years of Louis Vuitton. But there are much deeper affinities: sailing has evolved technically and technologically, sure. But what continues to make the difference are the people, also because what drives the hulls is 'only' the force of the sea and the wind, elements of nature that sailors respect enormously and with which they must find a kind of harmony. Going to sea then, in a broader sense, is a way of travelling, exploring, marvelling at what you encounter: the same spirit that drives Louis Vuitton.

From title sponsor of the 'only' LV Cup to title sponsor of the America's Cup as a whole. An increasingly important commitment, also economically...

We have never given precise figures and I won't do so now, also because Lvmh is a listed group and in a few weeks we will communicate the figures for the 2025 financial year, so we are all the more obliged to discretion. It is obvious, however, that these are important numbers, but I would like to reiterate: like any sponsorship, it is part of the marketing and communication strategy of a company or a brand. For Louis Vuitton, however, it is much more than that and serves to further strengthen ties with Italy, which for us is on the one hand a very important market, both for local customers and tourists, and on the other is the place where we have strategic production centres, from footwear to eyewear, passing through other product categories of made in Italy, which respond to the quality standards of the maison and its attention to social and environmental sustainability.