logo
Hermes in ‘League of Their Own' as Family Gets $5 Billion Payout

Hermes in ‘League of Their Own' as Family Gets $5 Billion Payout

Bloomberg19-02-2025

By and Angelina Rascouet
Save
The French family behind Hermes International SCA is on track to pocket more than $5 billion in dividends for a series of four record-breaking years, when the maker of pricey leather handbags and silk scarves rode an industry boom and is now defying a slump.
Some 100 heirs to the luxury fortune, who control just over two thirds of Hermes shares, have benefited from rapidly rising payouts including this year's biggest ever. The company reported a jump in fourth-quarter revenue while rivals LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE and Gucci-owner Kering SA recorded declines.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Chargeurs Updates ESG Efforts to Halve Carbon Footprint
Chargeurs Updates ESG Efforts to Halve Carbon Footprint

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Chargeurs Updates ESG Efforts to Halve Carbon Footprint

Chargeurs PCC has dropped an updated ESG strategy. The French interlining firm shared plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 46 percent by 2030, as the nucleus of the plan centers around reducing the company's carbon footprint. More from Sourcing Journal EXCLUSIVE: Arvind, Fashion for Good's 'Near-Carbon-Neutral' Factory Initiative Seeks to Break Industry Paralysis Shein's Climate Ambitions Have Been Validated. Now What? Material World: Celebrate Biological Diversity Day With Carp Couture 'As a global company operating across five continents, we feel the responsibility to lead the transition to a more sustainable future,' said Gianluca Tanzi, chairman and CEO of Chargeurs PCC. 'Our mission is to act as pioneers and game changers, playing a leading role in the transformation of the textile industry.' The holistic effort includes designing with circularity, protecting biodiversity and enhancing social corporate governance through 'stringent supply chain oversight.' Chargeurs said this strategy is based on measurable data and integrated actions throughout the value chain. 'We want to continue innovating, providing our customers with solutions that merge excellence and awareness,' Tanzi said. 'This is why we are pursuing a series of real and concrete commitments that will impact not only within our company but also throughout our supply chain—addressing environmental concerns, product innovation and social responsibility.' Those concrete steps include operations already underway at the historic Lainière de Picardie plant in Péronne. Hot water replaced steam systems, and other advanced machinery has been installed, leading to an 11 percent emissions reduction in 2024 alone. In parallel, Chargeurs said, the company has engaged its suppliers to map emissions since December 2024. In pursuit of strengthening its supply chain transparency, 80 percent of its suppliers will have undergone SMETA audits by 2024, with plans in place to extend assessments across the remaining chain. Beyond modernizing infrastructure, Chargeurs is advancing sustainable product innovation, too, in pursuit of reduced energy consumption. Launched in 2023, Chargeurs' Zero-Water Dyeing is a range of interlinings characterized by low water consumption in the dyeing process. Available in 19 colors and made in France, the range can save up to 2,600 liters of water per 1,000 linear meters, according to the company's annual report. This range is part of Chargeurs' Sustainable 360 flagship collection, which uses lower-impact materials. Developed in 2019 and primarily designed using recycled yarn, the range expanded its material composition to cover a broader range of environmentally conscious inputs. Outside of the Zero-Water Dyeing range, this spans recycled, GRS-certified polyester, BCI and GOTS cotton, hemp, Ecovero responsibly-sourced viscose and bio-sourced polyamides, primarily from SMETA audited suppliers. The idea is to reduce microplastic dispersion, reduce water use and mitigate chemical treatments. Since 2021, the company's research and development efforts have focused on reducing chemical substances in formulations, seeing Chargeurs adopt stricter than-industry-average standards, even eliminating certain components when warranted. In 2024, the business line entered close partnerships with leading brands on the joint development of products aligned with their CSR requirements. Chargeurs' R&D laboratory in France has played a central role in providing solutions, developing an internal blacklist of unsustainable components; this voluntary measure clocked 60 percent of products and 90 percent of substances as compliant. Aware of the growing expectations of stakeholders and the group's dependence on raw materials like cotton and wood, biodiversity preservation is another pillar of Chargeurs' green path. To that end, Chargeurs' Lainière de Picardie factory maintains 75 percent of its grounds as a protected natural habitat. Last year, the group launched a reforestation initiative in Brazil, partnering with WeForest to plant 1,500 trees. The company also took part in COP16 Biodiversity in Cali, Colombia, and has entered other international 'ecosystem restoration collaborations' as well. A 'cornerstone' of Chargeurs' sustainability strategy is its staunch commitment to the 'Local for Local' model: an approach reflecting the company's long-term vision of responsible, regionally rooted growth.

Reeves's choices will make Britain poorer
Reeves's choices will make Britain poorer

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Reeves's choices will make Britain poorer

The French statesman Pierre Mendes-France once said that to govern is to choose, and it was a maxim repeated often by the Chancellor in her spending statement to the Commons today. 'I have made my choices. In place of chaos, I choose stability. In place of decline, I choose investment. In place of retreat, I choose national renewal. These are my choices. These are this Government's choices. These are the British people's choices.' This might have sounded like a nice rhetorical flourish – an ironic echo of Mrs Thatcher quoting Francis of Assisi in 1979 – but what does it tell us about the Government's priorities? It is to continue spending money we do not earn and do not have because Labour is unwilling to take the difficult decisions necessary to reform the areas that cost the most to sustain, namely welfare and the NHS. The Treasury ostensibly spent months conducting what is called a zero-based spending review, testing budgets against whether they meet the Government's objectives and priorities. But who decides what they should be? An increase in defence spending has been forced on Labour and will be paid for from raiding the overseas aid budget. In a rare moment of candour the Chancellor admitted the 2.6 per cent of GDP would include spending on intelligence, not just the military. But Nato has asked for core spending of 3.5 per cent plus an additional 1.5 per cent for associated budgets. Labour will be nowhere near the requirement. That is their choice. Another priority is to allocate an extra £30 billion to 'our NHS' on top of the £22 billion already handed over when Labour took office last year. But where are the commensurate reforms that will ensure this is not wasted as so much money has been before? Wes Streeting has yet to unveil his masterplan for the NHS so we don't know; but history tells us to expect little in the way of change. Indeed, a renewed commitment to the nationalised ethos of the NHS, first set out in 1948, was cheered by MPs. That has ensured another decade of decline. Surely, with debt so high, the whole point of examining eye-watering levels of government spending is to try to bring it down, not tinker at the edges of departmental budgets while the overall amount balloons. But that is what we are seeing. The only savings she announced involved the closure of some public buildings, cutting back office costs and other 'efficiencies'. How often have we heard this before? Ms Reeves, who claims to have inherited a broken economy, has within the space of 12 months apparently so transformed its fortunes that she is able to splurge. She still believes that growth will provide the revenues even though her policies are inimical to economic expansion. Figures this week show the number of people in jobs has slumped at the fastest rate since 2014 directly as a result of the Chancellor's increase in employer National Insurance which took effect in the spring. How has that helped boost the economy? Ms Reeves made much of giving the go-ahead to extra investment in national infrastructure, such as roads, regional airports and local transport, which is undoubtedly needed, even though day to day spending will fall. All her hopes for growth rest on kick-starting major projects, including a swathe of social housebuilding schemes underpinned by a £39 billion investment over 10 years and reforms to planning laws to limit the scope for objections. But the industry says a serious shortage of skilled workers makes such promises impossible to fulfil. Moreover, will 'affordable housing' be filled by illegal immigrants ejected from hotels? The biggest issue is how to rein in spending on programmes that are spiralling out of control. Reforms of personal independence payments (PIPs) are in the pipeline but will they really go ahead? Labour Left-winger Richard Burgon said during Prime Minister's Questions that party backbenchers will not support the £5 billion cuts in a vote expected later this month. Scores of Labour MPs have signalled opposition and while Sir Keir Starmer stuck to his guns, this week's U-turn on the winter fuel allowance shows how he can buckle under pressure. The biggest problem facing the country is unsustainable debt, now around 100 per cent of GDP and record levels of taxation. Just paying the interest costs more than the defence budget and yet borrowing continues to grow. Nothing the Chancellor announced will reduce debt and everyone knows that she will have to raise taxes in the autumn or risk a market backlash. She keeps saying this is all being done to help 'working people' but they seem not to include the people who pay most tax, many of whom are already leaving the country. Net emigration among higher earners has reached its highest level since the financial crash. Like Labour chancellors of yore, she is spending money she does not have and will need to take more from wealth creators to fund it. Another French statesman, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, once said: 'The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.' The Chancellor has made her choice – not to pluck the goose that lays the golden egg, but to kill it. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Can France's Fast Fashion Law Cure Shein's Ills?
Can France's Fast Fashion Law Cure Shein's Ills?

Hypebeast

time3 hours ago

  • Hypebeast

Can France's Fast Fashion Law Cure Shein's Ills?

On Tuesday, France's Senate voted in favor of a revised bill aimed at regulating fast fashion companies, a major development in efforts to mitigate the ecological impact of overconsumption. If put into effect, the law could go as far as banning advertising from popular Chinese web stores likeSheinandTemuand other fast-fashion purveyors. Such firm measures to regulate the textile industry have come about in response to the environmental spillover attached to the proliferation of cheaply-produced and extremely low-priced garments. According to a report from theUN Environment Program, from 2000 to 2015, garment production doubled, while the lifecycle of garment use decreased by 36%. In light of the boom in production during the 2000s, it's no surprise that approximately 92 million tons of textile waste are produced by humans every year. Originally introduced in 2023 and passed by France's lower house in 2024, the bill was revised to 'make it possible to target players who ignore environmental, social, and economic realities, notably Shein and Temu,' said Jean-Francois Longeot, chair of the Senate's Committee on Regional Planning and Sustainable Development toReuters. The 'clarifications,' differentiating 'classic' from 'ultra' fast fashion, impose less severe restrictions on European apparel companies, like Inditex'sZara— which has drawn further criticism from sustainability advocates. The upper house of parliament voted almost unanimously for the revised bill, which includes new penalties for classic fast and ultra-fast fashion companies if set environmental criteria aren't met. Measures include reaching at least 10 euros per item of clothing by 2030, or up to 50% of the product's price excluding tax. For next steps, the European Commission will be informed of the vote, and a joint committee must reach an agreement between the two houses' versions of the law before it goes into effect. Following the introduction of the 2023 bill, delegates from EU Member States, including Austria, Finland, and the Netherlands, echoed France's initiative and pushed for EU-wide regulations. In February 2025, the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement to revise the 'Waste Framework Directive,' an EU framework for waste management, to address waste generated by fast and ultra-fast fashion companies. It's no coincidence that some of the most aggressive fast fashion regulations have emerged from the home of luxury's capital. In addition to the French parliament, Paris is known for the world's largest designer brands fromLouis VuittontoHermes, as well as luxury conglomeratesLVMHandKering. On an international scale, the wider charge is currently led by the European Union, where other metropolitan centers like Milan (home ofPrada Group) also serve as luxury hubs. The growing calls to reduce fashion's environmental impact are indeed long overdue. However, the question remains whether the measures will slow consumer demand for trendy styles at ultra-low prices, especially as economic headwinds are already putting increased pressure on wallets. The sheer abundance of 'Shein haul' TikToks, where users regularly show off packages full of excessive products, is a testament to how consumer behaviour shares culpability. Reforming the fashion industry's ills will require not only action from brands but also open minds from customers. A world where products are crafted with intention and consumed consciously is contingent on building a new relationship to fashion, involving better garment care and increased utility throughout the product lifecycle. Perhaps fast fashion has something to learn from luxury, especially given that some maisons are over a century old (Shein was founded in 2008). Strong principles of craft, quality, and longevity are integral to the messaging of today's most resonant luxury brands likeBottega VenetaandLoewe. The question is whether the high level of care and consideration held for luxury fashion can be extended to everyday clothing without pricing out customers.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store