Hidden behind the Chanel company, a huge “money empire” is quietly cultivated. The Wertheimer family brothers were described by the New York Times as “the quietest billionaires in the fashion industry.”
Switzerland’s Bilanz magazine’s latest list of Swiss richest people has been released. The richest person in Switzerland in 2023 is a French-Jewish businessman named Gerard Wertheimer. His personal net worth is estimated to be 42 billion Swiss francs (approximately 47.6 billion U.S. dollars, RMB 340.578 billion). Yuan).
Although Gerard Wertheimer is low-key and not well known to the public, the Jewish family he represents, the Wertheimer family, controls an extremely high-profile business – the French luxury goods company Chanel.
Gerard Wertheimer’s grandfather was the French Jewish businessman Pierre Wertheimer. He teamed up with Coco Chanel to found the French luxury goods company Chanel. Today, the Wertheimer family still firmly controls the ownership of Chanel.
As the third generation member of the controlling family, 71-year-old Gerard Wertheimer and his 74-year-old brother Alain Ernest Wertheimer jointly sit on the board of directors of today’s Chanel company. Alain is based in New York, and Gerard is based in Geneva, Switzerland. They are respectively in charge of the Wertheimer family and Chanel’s business in New York and Europe. It is worth noting that Chanel’s watchmaking company is registered in Geneva, where Chanel’s high-end jewelry watches and advanced watchmaking business are located.
Switzerland’s latest rich list mainly collects the net worth rankings of wealthy people who have settled in Switzerland. But according to Bloomberg data, the personal net worth of the two Wertheimer brothers is actually very close, both at around $47 billion.
Hidden behind the Chanel company, a huge “money empire” is quietly cultivated. The Wertheimer family brothers were described by the New York Times as “the quietest billionaires in the fashion industry.” In the early 21st century, Karl Lagerfeld managed a At the Chanel fashion show, Gérard Wertheimer once whispered to the famous fashion critic Dana Thoma, “We are a very cautious family, we never speak.” He believes that everything has to do with Coco Chanel, the Chanel brand and the creative team , “has nothing to do with the Wertheim family.”
In sharp contrast is Bernard Arnault and the Arnault family – they are the controlling family behind the world’s largest luxury goods company, French luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Dior DIOR. Everyone in this family is keen to step into the spotlight with the luxury brands they own and enjoy the public discussion about them. Although sometimes those comments are quite harsh.
However, there is still a big gap between the personal net worth of the Wertheimer brothers and Bernard Arnault. According to data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of November 4, 2023, Bernard Arnault, chairman of the board of directors of French luxury goods company LVMH Group, has an estimated personal net worth of US$170.2 billion and is currently the second richest man in the world.
But it is undeniable that in recent years, the Wertheimer brothers’ personal wealth has continued to rise among the ranks of Switzerland, where the rich gather. In 2022, Gerard Wertheimer ranked among the second richest people in Switzerland with a net worth of US$40 billion. It was also the first time that he ranked among the top ten richest people in Switzerland by Bilanz magazine. According to Bloomberg data, the two Wertheimer brothers, Gerard and Alain, were the 26th and 27th richest people in the world in 2022.
Chanel’s outstanding performance played a key role in accumulating more personal wealth for the Wertheimer brothers. Of course, this is also inseparable from the prosperity of the high-end luxury industry.
In 2020, 2021, and 2022, Chanel recorded annual revenue of US$10.1 billion, US$15.64 billion, and US$17.2 billion respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 17% in 2022. It is the world’s second largest luxury brand after Louis Vuitton.
When the Shenzhen show was held in early November 2023, Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel’s global boutique department, told Jiemian News, “Chanel’s growth has not slowed down, and our business will continue to grow in the next year (fiscal year 2023).”
Despite the three-year epidemic, Chanel’s performance has risen instead of falling, thanks to its ultra-high-end brand strategy. In the past few years, Chanel has raised prices globally every once in a while. The prices of its beauty, fashion, hand-worn accessories, jewelry and watch products are almost all at the top of their respective categories. In line with the price increase strategy, Chanel has upgraded its boutiques. From France to China, Chanel has gradually renovated and upgraded existing stores to provide high-net-worth customers with exclusive salon space and services.
In terms of products, Chanel also has a more balanced multi-category matrix than other luxury brands. In addition to the widely recognized Chanel beauty and fragrance business, the core fashion and handbag business, Chanel jewelry and watches also have representative works, and were accepted by the market earlier.
Taking watches as an example, Chanel launched the Première series of watches equipped with quartz movements in 1987, and the J12 advanced watchmaking series in 1999. These two product lines are now Chanel’s most iconic watch lines. This actually helped Chanel satisfy and digest the alternative investment needs of some customers for hard luxury goods during the epidemic. Compared with other high-end fashion brands that passively deployed hard luxury goods after the epidemic, Chanel was much more calm.
It is worth noting that among the top ten richest people in Switzerland in 2023, only Gerard Wertheimer of the Wertheimer family comes from the luxury goods industry, and none of the powerful wealthy families in the Swiss watchmaking industry are on the list. For example, the Hayek Family behind the Swatch Group and the Borer Family behind Rolex.
Compared with luxury goods companies such as Rolex and Swatch Group that focus on watches or jewelry, Chanel, which relies on multiple business forms such as beauty, fashion, high-end jewelry, and watches, has higher profit margins.
Chanel’s operating profit in 2022 will be US$5.776 billion, an increase of 5.8% from 2021. The Swatch Group’s net profit attributable to shareholders in the same year was 823 million Swiss francs (approximately US$934 million). Even Rolex, the world’s largest watchmaker, has a revenue of approximately 9.3 billion Swiss francs (approximately US$10.556 billion) in 2022, and its profits are difficult to surpass Chanel (a report from Guolian Securities pointed out that Rolex’s profits The rate is about 15%).
In addition, the external investment strategies of super-rich families also affect their personal wealth accumulation. In addition to controlling the Chanel business in Switzerland and even Europe, the Wertheimer brothers also have various investments around the world.
In France, for example, they own several wine estates and labels. They also have a racing business, own stables in France and the United States, and breed hundreds of top thoroughbred horses. In Switzerland, in addition to investing in Chanel’s own watchmaking business, Gerard Wertheimer also successively invested in high-end independent watchmaking brands such as Bell & Ross and F.P. Journe through Chanel.
