Bloomberg — Tiffany & Co. to open its flagship store on Fifth Avenuewhat you now call Landmark, on April 28, after a three-year renewal. On the eve of the big day, Bloomberg spoke with Anthony Ledru, CEO of American jewelry brandnow part of luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE.
Among his many goals, he said, is serve a more elite clientele and orient products towards a higher price.
The interview took place on April 21 and has been edited for clarity.
The new store looks amazing. What is your favorite part of Landmark?
I have two. First, the ground floor; there is something very generous about it. And very American. The distribution is the same as the one we had in the 40s, super inclusive. But when you enter, there is a beautiful skylight that brings light and modernity. and on each side [en pantallas digitales]you have iconic scenes from New York, Central Park.
And my second favorite is the penthouse on the 10th floor, which is the complete opposite. It is very exclusive. It’s for one, two, three, maybe zero VIP customers a day.
In January, Bernard Arnault gave some figures: the temporary store generated about 200 million dollars a year. He said the new one will do at least twice as much. Do you think it will reach 400 million dollars in sales? Do you have a deadline for it?
Obviously you would dream of higher figures. You don’t make these kinds of investments to not see an impact. But the obsession is really the desirability of the brand. What we are trying to create is a dream. We tried to add a truly experiential, immersive and cultural dimension to the project.
Before it was the largest jewelry store in the world. That’s ok. But I think we have to bring a lot more to it in 2023. And those three dimensions that I’ve mentioned will create desirability. And that translates into transactions.
It is a much bigger store than before. It literally takes hours to go through it. That is why there is a different experience from one plant to another. The aesthetic approach to our past, which probably made sense in the 1920s, was coherence. I don’t think you realized what floor you were on in the past. It was all the same.
Today is very different. You are surprised plant by plant. I think some people spend half the day eating, having breakfast or dinner at Daniel Boulud’s Blue Box Cafe.
In the past, this store accounted for 10% of Tiffany’s sales. Do you think this figure will increase? Or will it decline due to its other openings around the world?
It had an extraordinary weight in the past because Tiffany was also extraordinarily North American focused, perhaps too much. The brand’s strategy now is really to expand, in Europe in particular. We have potential in markets where most of our competitors are really late stage. However, if we think of Tiffany, today we do not have a flagship in Paris.
Are they going to build one?
There are many discussions. Of course we need one or two there. Potentially we need a more intimate one around Place Vendôme and a bigger one around the Champs Elysees, the equivalent of Fifth Avenue. We are already there, but we can do much better.
We are going to open one in Milan, in Via Monte Napoleone. Today we are just behind the Duomo. There is enormous potential. We will also renovate our stores in London. So Europe will first be a great focus of work.
This year it is also extraordinary what we are seeing in the Middle East. Dubai Mall, since the store reopened a week ago, it has been really impressive. If you look at Southeast Asia, it’s the same approach. And of course we have the potential that everyone in Greater China has. In July we will reopen our Ginza flagship [Tokio].
Can we continue to grow in America? I think the potential is just as great. In the last ten years we have not invested much in store innovation. That is our biggest opportunity.
Can you give us an idea of how much the Landmark renovation has cost?
No, I can’t, but it is the largest investment ever made by LVMH in a single store. I think that says a lot.
Does it reach a billion dollars?
No. It doesn’t reach a billion at all.
Will there be new product lines or new categories linked to the store?
We have some limited and beautiful watches. The momentum around watches will focus more on jewelery watches. There is a line called Tiffany 57, which will be around $500,000. And then we have a Union Square clock, named after the flagship we had in the 19th century.
There will be these limited editions, plus new watches next year around the Schlumberger line. [llamada así por el diseñador de Tiffany del siglo XX Jean Schlumberger]. We believe that something very refined and high-end can be made. Those watches will be around a hundred thousand dollars.
It is about aligning the watch business with that of jewelry.
Since LVMH took over, Tiffany has collaborated with sportswear brands Supreme and Nike. Some of her European rivals would not engage in such collaborations. Do you think it is risky?
The risky thing is not to risk it. On one side are the European brands, which are very focused on heritage, and I think it makes sense for them. On the other hand, fashion brands focus above all on modernity. We believe that we are a mix of both worlds. If you look at Tiffany, this is the way we’ve been operating for 186 years. On one side are the Diamond Kings, Schlumberger, the White House. That’s the heritage part. On the other hand, Tiffany has been part of pop culture. Launched the concept of house designers: Picasso, Peretti. It is part of our DNA.
When we get criticized, it’s probably a good sign. When you refer to Nike, they are two legendary brands together.
In the store there is a lot of contemporary art in shades of Tiffany blue, from artists like Basquiat and Daniel Arsham. Last year, dealer Larry Gagosian broke the auction record for an American artist when he bought Andy Warhol’s Sage Shot Blue Marilyn (1964) for $195 million on behalf of an anonymous buyer. When he opens the store, will we see that work of art there?
No comment.
Is Tiffany experiencing a slowdown in demand, especially in the US?
It is clear that the world has slowed down a bit. In the last 12 months there have been several headwinds. We are still in good shape. We believe that the investments we are making are for the long term. The Landmark, hopefully, for the next 50 or a hundred years is paid at the level of investments. In the US there will be ups and downs. It happened in 2001, 2008. The good news is that in the US it always picks up pretty quickly.
Can you tell us a bit about the Landmark’s VIP services?
It’s a big change compared to before, as we used to have very few private areas. We now have generous VIP areas, including the penthouse. It’s about 8,000 square feet, it’s part of what we call “the diamond on the roof.”
It seems that with LVMH, the sky is the limit when it comes to investing in a brand.
I think that’s the big difference between being independent and going public. I was at Tiffany before the acquisition, so I know exactly what was possible and what was not. With LVMH, we will have the means to fulfill our ambition. There really is that long-term vision and that long-term investment. With the Landmark, you’ll see the transformation of retail that will take place over the next 24 months. When you have these three elements, they are a game changer: you have more traffic, you have more quality traffic, and you have happier customers who log on and stay longer.
Read more at Bloomberg.com
2023-04-22 21:25:26
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