FRANCE. Henry Racamier, the man credited with turning Louis Vuitton from a sleepy family-owned leather goods maker into a global luxury brand in the 1980s, died on Saturday.
In 1990 Racamier lost a bitter struggle for LVMH to Bernard Arnault, the tough financier who controls and chairs the company today. Racamier was married to a Vuitton heiress, but he had little involvement in the business until he retired at the age of 65. Between 1977 and 1987, Racamier set about transforming the Louis Vuitton workshops that were producing goods for just two shops in France and had yearly sales of €1 million.
However, in 1987, Racamier took the fateful step to merge Louis Vuitton with the Moet family’s Moet-Hennessy Champagne and spirits company to create a new luxury goods conglomerate. Widely praised at the time, the merger began to come apart within months as Racamier and LVMH chairman Alain Chevalier fell out, leaving the way open for others to take advantage of the feud at the heart of the new company.
Later, it was Racamier who sought Arnault’s support in his fight with Chevalier, who had recruited UK drinks company Guinness as an LVMH shareholder. But it was Arnault, having sought the backing of Guinness in his turn, who saw the opportunity to seize control LVMH for himself. Not only did Arnault win this fight, but Racamier’s subsequent efforts to build a second luxury goods empire based on the Lanvin brand came to little. He sold up in 1995.
Perhaps in an inadvertent tribute to Racamier, the company he was instrumental in putting together in 1987, announced last week it will open its first Louis Vuitton store in India, making a total 298 Vuitton stores in 51 countries.
