Further girding its management bench as it seeks to rev up Gucci, Kering has tapped Louis Vuitton communications executive Stefano Cantino as deputy chief executive officer of the Italian fashion house.
Confirming the appointment exclusively to WWD, Kering said Cantino starts May 2 and will work hand-in-hand with Jean-François Palus, president and CEO of Gucci, as well as Francesca Bellettini, Kering’s deputy CEO in charge of brand development.
Cantino’s post is a new one, reporting to Palus, who took up his role at Gucci last September after a long tenure as managing director of Kering. Palus succeeded Marco Bizzarri, who exited Gucci along with creative director Alessandro Michele, setting the stage for a new development era under Michele’s successor, Valentino alum Sabato De Sarno.
Cantino’s “extensive experience in the luxury industry at senior levels in various organizations, his wide range of expertise, as well as his strategic thinking and his artistic culture, make him a major addition to my team,” Palus said. “Stefano will work very closely with me, and in full alignment with all the Gucci team, to implement our action plans across the business.”
It marks the ascension of yet another communications executive to the corner office, a trend that has been gathering steam in recent years, underscoring the crucial role of fashion’s storytellers, brand builders and image architects in a consumer-centric age.
Last June, Robert Triefus, Gucci’s senior executive vice president, corporate and brand strategy, exited the company and assumed the management helm of Italian outerwear firm Stone Island.
It is understood Palus will leverage Cantino’s expertise in communications, merchandising and managing relationships with the creative studio, but the Italian executive will be implicated in all the functions the CEO role touches, sharing with Palus the “responsibility to define and implement the brand strategy.”
While pigeonholed by some as a PR guy, Cantino spent much of his 22-year career at Prada in various business development, merchandising and marketing roles, involved in everything from retail to industrial processes, working closely with Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli and designer Miuccia Prada.
At Vuitton, too, which he joined in 2018, Cantino’s scope on communications and events extended to retail touch points.
The appointment is part of a broader effort to shift the corporate culture at Gucci toward a more collaborative, team-based and coherent structure — and to adapt the organization to its mega scale.
Palus has already been transmitting the message internally that “no one is greater than Gucci,” breaking down silos and rallying teams behind brand elevation efforts.
The veteran executive, who is Kering chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault’s most trusted deputy, has also partnered with Bellettini to build a more robust Gucci organization, which did not keep pace with its rapid growth, reaching 10 billion euros in revenues in recent years.
It is understood the arrival last year of De Sarno, the first external creative director since Tom Ford, also highlighted the need to create new structures and processes.
Bellettini, who met Cantino earlier in her career when she worked at Prada, characterized his appointment at Gucci as “another step in the reinforcement of the iconic Florentine house.”
“His extensive experience in strategic roles in prominent companies in the luxury sector is a valuable addition to Jean-François’ strong leadership and Sabato’s creative strength. Together with them and the entire Gucci team, we will write a new and highly successful chapter in the history of our magnificent brand,” said Bellettini, who is also CEO of Saint Laurent in Paris.
Gucci’s growth trajectory has been roller coaster-like throughout its history, and the goal is to install processes and ways of working that support creativity while building more stability and resilience into the business.
It is understood Bellettini and Palus ultimately wish to build deep reserves of management and creative talent at Gucci that can one day feed into smaller brands at the group, which include Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Brioni.
No doubt, Gucci will glean insights from Cantino’s time at the “war machine” that is Louis Vuitton, a luxury juggernaut powered by multiple cylinders including craftsmanship, heritage, fashion razzmatazz and broad-screen cultural engagements.
For his part, Cantino is said to have been attracted to the Gucci offer by the complexity and scale of the turnaround, sharing with Bellettini a penchant for operating in a challenging environment where you can make a difference and more easily discern the impact of your actions, as opposed to a boom period in which all boats rise.
“I am very proud to join Gucci, the house that owns the richest heritage in Italian luxury, as it begins a new chapter in its history,” Cantino said in a statement shared first with WWD. “I look forward to contributing with full dedication to the definition and implementation of the strategy that Jean-François Palus has initiated, and I can’t wait to work with all the Gucci team toward success.”
Cantino joined Vuitton in 2018 as senior vice president communication and events, having been recruited by then-chairman and CEO Michael Burke.
He kept a frenetic schedule, pinging around the world as Vuitton staged large-scale events for its roving spinoff shows, pre-collections, exhibitions and assorted cultural events for press and VICs. During his tenure Cantino helped the company navigate through the death of Virgil Abloh, its artistic director of men’s collections; the arrival of Pietro Beccari as Burke’s successor; the appointment of Abloh’s eventual successor Pharrell Williams, and the expanded remit of Nicolas Ghesquière, who last year added destination pre-fall shows to his workload.
Indefatigable, affable and even-keeled, Cantino is esteemed by Vuitton rank and file for his unflappable nature, high professional standards and warm demeanor.
Italian by birth, Cantino has held a range of global brand development positions in retail, communications and marketing.
The executive joined Prada as marketing director in the late ’90s and went on to head up communications and external relations for the brand. From 2014 he was strategic marketing director for Miu Miu, Prada, Church’s and Car Shoe, whose acquisition by Prada Group was facilitated by Cantino and Bellettini.
A political science graduate of the University of Turin, he is well versed in strategic and operational communications.
To be sure, Gucci’s new management trifecta faces a daunting challenge: Putting Kering’s biggest and most profitable brand back on a growth track under De Sarno, whose arrival at the Italian house coincided with slowdown in luxury spending, and has yet to spark a renaissance.
Gucci fall 2024
Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
Signaling a tougher-than-expected turnaround for Gucci, Kering issued a profit warning last month ahead of the release of its first-quarter results, expected on April 26.
The French luxury group said it now expects consolidated revenue for the period to decline by around 10 percent on a comparable basis against last year’s figures, dragged down by Gucci, which has notably stalled in the Asia Pacific region. Comparable revenues at Gucci in the first quarter are expected to be down by nearly 20 percent year-on-year, as reported.
Kering had vowed to gird the leadership suite as part of its action plan to revive Gucci, and already appointed Massimo Vian chief industrial and supply chain officer. Prior, Vian had been chief operating officer at Prada, and his resume also includes senior roles at Luxottica.
According to sources, Vian has already achieved more efficiencies, better aligning the studio, merchandising and product development.
Taking Gucci to its next stage will also involve reinforcing certain luxury attributes including aesthetics, quality and perception — the latter being the purview of an experienced communications executive like Cantino — as well as organizational changes fostering greater collaboration.
During its annual results presentation last February, Pinault told analysts and press that Kering was putting in place a new operating model, enhancing exclusivity, improving the in-store experience, reestablishing the core role of leather goods and nourishing Gucci’s status as a “cultural institution” via “communications aimed at creating emotion, cultivating desire and amplifying the brand narrative.”
“We are moving with determination to get to the inflection point,” he stressed.
Cantino is to become a member of Gucci’s new nine-member executive committee, with one more key position yet to be filled. The nature of that position and timelines to fill it could not immediately be learned.
But it’s understood new go-to-market processes, a full court press around De Sarno and other tactics are already bearing fruit, and helping Gucci finds its way out of the fashion wilderness.
Gucci moved up one spot to number 11 in Lyst’s ranking of the hottest fashion brands of the fourth quarter, and Chinese fashion blogger Tao Liang, professionally known as Mr. Bags, included two Gucci models — the Ancora Jackie and the Bamboo 1947 — in his most recent list of the 30 most desirable handbags in China.
Gucci’s Bamboo 1947 bag in Ancora red.
Courtesy of Gucci
According to sources, social media listening services monitored by Gucci demonstrate marked improvements of quality perception.
Luxury analysts seem to be giving Kering the benefit of the doubt over its stalled cash cow, albeit with low visibility on the timing of a sales rebound.
“We remain convinced that actions currently taken at Gucci should bear fruit eventually,” HSBC said in a report last week, which lowered its forecasts for Kering by 11 percent for 2024 and by 6 to 7 percent for 2025-26. “We have integrated a return to double-digit growth at Gucci in Q4 2024 with limited conviction, however, as the depletion pace of previous seasons’ products will be key in achieving such a performance.”