LVMH: Bernard Arnault announces the abolition of 10 % of the workforce of his subsidiary of Champagne and Cognac Moët Hennessy

According to information from the letter, confirmed by AFP, LVMH plans to remove 10 % of the wage bill of Moët Hennessy. This company, which brings together the brands of champagne, wines and spirits of the multinational luxury, experienced a decline in 2024, with a turnover on the fall of 11 % over the year at 5.9 billion euros, due in particular to a slowdown in consumption in China.

« While the activity found its level in 2019, Moët Hennessy announced yesterday its intention to adjust its organization and gradually return to its 2019 staff levels, mainly by the management of its natural turnover and the non-renewal of vacant posts »confirmed the LVMH subsidiary to AFP. These positions of post should take the form of an attrition of the workforce with the non-replacement of departures on the 9,400 positions in Moët Hennessy in the world.

Multinational management had other solutions to relaunch its turnover

LVMH chooses to charge the note of the decline in its turnover to its employees. To explain the disappointing results published in the first quarter, with a decline of 2 % to 20.3 billion euros, the multinational points out the context of trade war carried out by Donald Trump, the United States representing in 2024 34 % of sales of LVMH wines and spirits, with brands like Moët, Dom Perignon or Hennessy.

The group’s CEO, Bernard Arnault, one of the few French people to have been invited to the enthronement of the American president, also pleaded for “A free trade area” between Europe and the United States, ensuring that the European Union was not “Not led by a political power (…) but by a bureaucratic power which spends its time editing regulations”.

The multinational management had other solutions to relaunch its turnover. Take part of the 6.8 billion euros paid under 2024 profits to shareholders in the form of dividends or action buyback, to invest in its marks. Or draw a tiny part of the fortune of its main shareholder. In the last forbes of the richest in the world, Bernard Arnault points to fifth place, with a fortune estimated at $ 146 billion.