What is LVMH?
Founded in 1987, LVMH was born from the merger of two iconic and world-renowned companies and quickly became a true one of one Liger in the luxury space. The ‘LV’ of fashion house Louis Vuitton, the figurative lion and the ‘MH’ from Moët Hennessy, the world’s leading producers of champagne and cognac, the tiger, that when coupled, created the world’s first and largest luxury conglomerate. This unification, the brainchild of principal owners and controllers, the Arnault family, are no stranger to luxury goods and new CEO as of 2025, Bernard Arnault boasts a wealth to rival the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Not bad company to be in at all.
What does LVMH do?
This all sounds very impressive, but you might be thinking, what exactly is a luxury conglomerate? In simple terms, it’s a large parent company that owns and manages multiple luxury brands. These brands still operate fairly independently of one another under their own names, but benefit from sharing resources, capital and in a lot of cases, an overarching vision. Although the Arnault family might manage these brands centrally, their purpose in amalgamating them is to capitalise on the diverse portfolios of the brands in question.
As a result, LVMH’s operations span a variety of sectors, from fashion to leather goods and jewellery, from cosmetics to watches and even wine & spirits. The reality is, conglomerates are fairly in vogue in today’s world, with some other notable players including Kering, which owns Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, among others, and Richemont, another, that owns Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Montblanc. Several measurable metrics confirm that LVMH is by far the biggest and most prestigious.
LVMH is the world’s largest luxury group by revenue, and owns over 75 brands, all of which hold significant weight in the luxury space. These include fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, and Dior, among others. Alcohol brands Moët and Chandon, Hennessy, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Perignon and watch and jewellery tycoons TAG Heuer, Bulgari, Hublot and Tiffany & Co, to name but a few headline assets.
Who Owns LVMH?
With over 75 brands on its records, the way LVMH runs its operation is key to its overall and continued success. CEO Bernard Arnault sits atop the tree and produces a long-term vision for the companies he effectively controls. To end that sentence there, however, is a purposefully gross simplification of the intricacies of LVMH in practice.
LVMH is a publicly traded company and can be found on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange, and yes, it is majority controlled by CEO Bernard Arnault, but that cartoonish vision of him sitting in an ivory tower pushing buttons and pulling levers is far from the truth. Arnault is able to hold a controlling stake in LVMH through his family’s holding company, Groupe Arnault, and it is somewhat of a familiar affair, truth be told. His children, all five of them, are all in some way involved in the family business and have varying roles in how it functions.
Despite Arnault producing an overarching vision for all that falls under his umbrella, LVMH runs a hybrid model of governance that allows each brand some form of creative and operational autonomy. Most of these brands, therefore, have their own CEOs and creative directors, some of whom are Arnault’s children. His daughter, Delphine, for example, is the CEO of Christian Dior Couture. His son Antoine, CEO of Christian Dior SE, and it doesn’t stop there. Alexandre is an Executive VP at Tiffany & Co., Frederic runs LVMH Watches, and Jean is a Director alongside him. This all means that irrespective of LVMHS status as a “public” company, the fairly incestuous holding structure in the most positive way ensures that the family maintain majority voting rights and, more importantly, long-term control of the company’s future.
What are some successful LVMH partnerships?
We have already outlined some of the brands that fall under the incredibly large umbrella that is LVMH. What we haven’t done in quite as much detail is showcase some of the conglomerate’s most notable collaborative projects, standalone innovation, and culture-shaping assets it has produced. LVMH does a really good job of stirring luxury into a variety of other sectors. A prime example of this is when LVMH launched Fenty by Rihanna, marking the first new fashion house under LVMH since 1987 and the first led by a Black woman and has since lapped up numerous accolades. LVMH has also overseen collaborations between Supreme and Louis Vuitton, and notably for the footwear scene, the Air Dior was born from the fusion of Dior and Oregon-based Nike that creating scene-shaking buzz across the fashion and sneaker communities.
LVMH stands as a towering force in the luxury world because it draws on its heritage, drives innovation, and follows a tightly held family vision. With over 75 prestigious brands under its wing and a proven track record of shaping culture through standout partnerships and forward-thinking leadership, LVMH continues to define what it means to be a modern luxury conglomerate. As it evolves, it remains not only a symbol of opulence but also a blueprint for strategic, generational business success.