Kering Unveils ReconKering Strategy to Restore Growth and Strengthen Leadership in the Global Luxury Market

Kering Unveils ReconKering Strategy to Restore Growth and Strengthen Leadership in the Global Luxury Market

(IN BRIEF) Kering has unveiled its ReconKering strategy, a comprehensive transformation plan aimed at restoring brand desirability, strengthening operational performance, and positioning the Group for long-term leadership in the evolving luxury market. The strategy combines a renewed focus on traditional luxury values with investments in technology, data, and new business areas. It includes targeted brand strategies across its portfolio, the creation of a unified operating platform, and clear financial objectives focused on growth, profitability, and capital efficiency. Structured in phases through 2030, the plan is designed to help Kering adapt to changing market conditions, enhance competitiveness, and drive sustainable value creation.

(PRESS RELEASE) PARIS, 16-Apr-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — Kering has outlined a comprehensive strategic roadmap during its Capital Markets Day in Florence, unveiling its transformation program titled ReconKering. The initiative is designed to restore brand desirability, reinforce operational discipline, and position the Group for long-term leadership in an evolving luxury landscape shaped by new technologies, shifting consumer expectations, and emerging markets.

The strategy builds on Kering’s core foundations in what it defines as True Luxury—centered on creativity, craftsmanship, cultural relevance, and product excellence—while preparing the Group to lead the transition toward what it describes as Next Luxury. This future-oriented approach incorporates digital innovation, advanced client engagement, and expansion into new categories and geographies.

Facing a complex market environment marked by increased competition and structural changes, Kering is implementing decisive measures to sharpen execution and strengthen its operating model. Over recent months, the Group has already restructured its organization, improved financial discipline, refined product strategies and pricing, optimized its retail network, and enhanced governance. ReconKering formalizes these efforts into a structured roadmap aimed at delivering sustained value creation.

Chief Executive Officer Luca de Meo emphasized that the plan reconnects the Group with its defining strengths while embracing the evolving nature of luxury. He highlighted a renewed focus on desirability, agility, and execution as central to restoring growth and performance.

At the brand level, each of Kering’s Houses is entering this new phase with clearly defined priorities. Gucci is focusing on strengthening its identity through clearer creative direction and improved product consistency, particularly in leather goods and ready-to-wear. Saint Laurent aims to build on its strong fashion authority by expanding its product offering and accelerating international growth, especially in Asia. Bottega Veneta continues to emphasize its distinctive approach to understated luxury while broadening its product range. Balenciaga is refining its balance between innovation and core offerings, with a focus on strengthening women’s collections and expanding beyond its strong presence in Asia. Alexander McQueen is sharpening its focus on tailoring and eveningwear, supported by a more disciplined operating model, while Brioni is reinforcing its position in high-end sartorial craftsmanship.

Kering is also strengthening its jewelry segment by bringing together brands such as Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, and Qeelin under a unified structure. This consolidation aims to enhance scale, creativity, and operational coherence. In eyewear, Kering is advancing its integrated platform while exploring opportunities in smart eyewear through collaboration with Google.

The Group is also expanding into new areas through Kering Next, which includes initiatives in design, beauty, and wellness, alongside its House of Wonders program to support emerging luxury brands.

A central element of ReconKering is the creation of a unified Group platform structured around five core hubs: Industry, Client, Technology, Sustainability, and Support Functions. These hubs are designed to provide shared capabilities across the organization, enabling faster decision-making, improved efficiency, and greater consistency while preserving the creative independence of individual Houses.

The Industry hub focuses on strengthening manufacturing and supplier partnerships, including a joint venture with HModa to secure key production capabilities. The Client hub aims to build a sophisticated data-driven platform powered by artificial intelligence to enhance customer insights and engagement. The Technology hub will deliver a modern digital infrastructure based on cloud systems and advanced tools such as digital twins. Sustainability remains central to the strategy, reinforcing Kering’s commitment to responsible practices across the value chain.

From a financial perspective, Kering is targeting gradual revenue outperformance and a significant improvement in profitability, with the goal of more than doubling its recurring operating margin over the medium term. The Group also aims to improve capital efficiency, targeting a return on capital employed above 20%. Investment priorities include continued capital expenditure to support organic growth, selective acquisitions to strengthen capabilities, and consistent shareholder returns.

The execution of ReconKering follows a phased approach. By the end of 2026, the Group aims to complete a structural reset, restoring clarity and discipline. By 2028, it expects to achieve renewed growth supported by stronger brand positioning and operational improvements. By 2030, Kering aims to reestablish itself as a leading force in the next generation of luxury.

In a context of geopolitical uncertainty and economic volatility, the strategy reflects a long-term commitment to resilience, adaptability, and sustainable value creation, positioning Kering to navigate the changing dynamics of the global luxury market.

BRAND STRATEGIES: DESIRABILITY FIRST, DESIGNED FOR LONG‑TERM GROWTH

Kering Houses enter this new chapter with distinct identities and clear development paths, each reinforcing what makes them unique while scaling synergies:

• Gucci: reigniting desirability by refocusing the brand around what makes it unmistakably Gucci, with clear creative direction, disciplined codes and a revitalized heritage with true cultural impact. The House is reshaping its product architecture across categories – from a strengthened leather goods offer to more coherent ready‑to‑wear, shoes and jewelry – supported by higher quality standards. Relevance is rebuilt through sharper regional strategies and a streamlined distribution model that strengthens brand equity and accelerates execution.

• Saint Laurent: magnifying what already makes the House iconic: strong fashion authority, clear codes and a highly desirable silhouette. The ambition is to broaden the brand’s expression across an expanded daywear wardrobe, a reinforced men’s offer and a more elevated leather goods proposition, while accelerating its geographic reach with a particular focus on Asia.

• Bottega Veneta: scaling a deeply distinctive vision of luxury, rooted in discretion, restraint and self‑confidence, while preserving the House’s uncompromising essence. The next chapter reinforces Bottega Veneta role as the Group’s emblem of deep luxury, a philosophy rooted in timeless craftsmanship, durability, cultural depth, and long‑term value creation. It extends the brand’s expression beyond leather goods into a complete women’s and men’s wardrobe, while strengthening the desirability of its iconic Intrecciato and deepening cultural visibility across key markets.

• Balenciaga: leveraging its unique fusion of couture mastery and cultural relevance to reinforce its role as an innovation engine and a key bridge to the next generation of luxury consumers. The next chapter focuses on restoring balance by scaling the Women’s offer and strengthening leather goods, while building on the strong foundation of the men’s business, and expanding the House’s geographic presence beyond Asia, where it performs well.

• McQueen: refocusing the House on its sharp British sartorial identity, with women’s ready‑to‑wear, tailoring and eveningwear at the core, supported by coherent leather goods, shoes and accessories. The brand is being reshaped around a leaner, more disciplined model – from more focused collections to a rightsized retail network and organization.

• Brioni: reaffirming its position as the reference in Italian alta sartoria, strengthening its ultra-luxury positioning through unmatched craftsmanship, Maestria tailoring and an increasingly refined lifestyle wardrobe. The House preserves exclusivity through highly curated experiences, while its mastery of customization and fit reinforces its role as the Group’s natural center of sartorial excellence.

• Kering Jewelry: bringing together Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo and Qeelin, within a unified jewelry activity strengthens each House’s creative identity while unlocking greater scale and coherence. The gradual integration of Raselli Franco provides a strategic industrial platform, enhancing craftsmanship, vertical integration and traceability across the portfolio. This foundation not only accelerates the growth of our jewelry Maisons, but also unlocks meaningful potential for fashion houses.

• Kering Eyewear: advancing its integrated luxury eyewear platform – built on a portfolio of 15 brands and strong industrial and design capabilities – with ambition to lead luxury Smart Eyewear. In partnership with Google, the business aims to elevate connected eyewear into a true luxury experience, combining craftsmanship, design leadership and meaningful functionality across its Houses.

• Kering Next: expanding the boundaries of luxury with a disciplined approach to new value pools – from strengthening Ginori 1735 as a cultural design Maison, to unlocking the full Beauty potential of our brands through the strategic partnership with L’Oréal, and seeding long‑term opportunities in Longevity & Wellness. Through House of Wonders, Kering Next also nurtures emerging brands and new luxury territories, scaling them through the Group platform

A NEW INTEGRATED GROUP PLATFORM DESIGNED FOR SPEED AND EFFICIENCY

ReconKering establishes a Group platform, enabling Houses to operate with more power, speed and efficiency while preserving full creative identity.

This platform is structured around five hubs that provide shared capabilities wherever scale creates clear value:

• Industry: building the Group’s industrial backbone by consolidating core capabilities across purchasing, logistics, R&D, quality, manufacturing and supplier partnerships. The Group is reshaping its supplier ecosystem around strategic partners, supported by unified planning, shared standards, reinforced industrial know‑how and a strong commitment to training and skills transmission across Houses. As a proofpoint, Kering has established a strategic joint‑venture with HModa, an Italian manufacturers’ company, to strengthen its industrial footprint and secure access to key manufacturing capabilities.

• Client: developing the luxury industry’s most advanced client intelligence platform, enabling deeper understanding and richer commitment across Houses. Kering is consolidating proprietary and external data into a unified client base, powered by AI, to inform decisions upstream, from creation, sales & operations planning, and downstream across media, activation and clienteling.

• Technology: providing a modern, scalable tech foundation – powered by cloud‑native systems, agentic AI and next‑generation digital twins – accelerating decision‑making and supporting a new operating model through augmented tools and capabilities across product, client experience and operations.

• Sustainability: embedding environmental and social ambition at the heart of every strategic and operational choice, reinforcing Kering’s long‑standing leadership in responsible luxury. This approach ensures long‑term resilience, full traceability and responsible growth across the value chain.

• Support Functions: bringing rigor, clarity and consistency to the Group’s core enablers, creating the conditions for Houses to focus fully on creativity, product excellence and brand development.

Together, they unlock a more agile, connected and disciplined operating model, supporting both True Luxury and Next Luxury by combining creativity, craftmanship, cultural relevance and product excellence.

FINANCIAL OUTLOOK AND CAPITAL ALLOCATION: A DISCIPLINED PATH TO SUSTAINABLE VALUE CREATION

Kering financial ambition is anchored in disciplined execution and sustainable value creation:

• Desirability: brand equity measured through a robust and holistic framework, developed with an external institution and based on 3 pillars: visibility, appeal and image strength. This approach enables each House to track momentum, benchmark against peers and activate targeted levers, ensuring desirability as key driver of future growth.

• Revenue: gradual market outperformance.

• Profitability: gradual recurring operating income improvement supported by a stronger mix, focused execution and operational rigor across the Group; targeting mid‑term to more than double full-year 2025 recurring operating margin percentage at Group level. Profitability is being rebuilt methodically, structurally and sustainably.

• Capital efficiency: structural improvement in ROCE to above 20% mid-term, supported by stronger fundamentals, better inventory discipline and more selective investment.

• Capital allocation reflects our strategic priorities: 
  • between 5 to 6% of revenue re-invested in Capex to support the sustainable organic growth of the Houses;
  • a highly selective external growth through targeted bolt-on acquisitions that mainly aims to strengthen craftsmanship, vertical integration and raw material security;
  • a steady shareholder returns via a consistent dividend policy targeting a payout ratio around 50% of recurring net income, Group share.

A CLEAR SEQUENCE: RESET, REBUILD, RECLAIM

ReconKering follows a coherent and forward‑driven sequence, rebuilding strength across the organization, accelerating what matters most and advancing with a challenger mindset to reclaim leadership.

• RESET – by year-end 2026

Kering will have completed a structural reset, restoring financial discipline, operational efficiency and strategic clarity across the Group. In parallel, Houses will focus on reigniting desirability and strengthening creative and product relevance, establishing solid foundations for long‑term performance.

• REBUILD – by year-end 2028

Kering will be in a phase of renewed, sustainable growth. Building on restored fundamentals and rising desirability, and supported by a fully activated Group platform, the Group will accelerate momentum across its portfolio, with clearer brand expressions, stronger client engagement and improved execution. This will translate into structural improvements in profitability and returns, backed by a more balanced, resilient and higher‑quality portfolio.

• RECLAIM – by year-end 2030

Kering will have reclaimed its leadership as the reference player in Next Luxury, a Group defined by desirability, powered by efficiency, and built for the decade ahead.

In an environment marked by heightened geopolitical tensions, macroeconomic volatility and uncertain market conditions, our financial ambition reflects our long‑term conviction in the strength of our portfolio and our execution discipline, underpinned by an agile, resilient and responsive approach.

About Kering

Kering is a global, family-led luxury group, home to people whose passion and expertise nurture creative Houses across couture and ready-to-wear, leather goods, jewelry, eyewear and beauty: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, Dodo, Qeelin, Ginori 1735, as well as Kering Eyewear. Inspired by their creative heritage, Kering Houses design and craft exceptional products and experiences that reflect the Group’s commitment to excellence, sustainability and culture. This vision is expressed in our signature: Creativity is our Legacy. In 2025, Kering employed 44,000 people and generated revenue of €14.7 billion.

Media Contacts:

Kering

Press
Emilie Gargatte
+33 (0)1 45 64 61 20
emilie.gargatte@kering.com

Pénélope Linage
+33 (0)6 76 09 42 10
penelope.linage-ext@kering.com

Analysts/investors
Philippine de Schonen
+33 (0)6 13 45 68 39
philippine.deschonen@kering.com

Victoria Gerard
+33 (0)6 79 39 85 16
victoria.gerard@kering.com

SOURCE: Kering