PPR unveils new group name
22/03/2013
In a statement on March 22, the group, which owns leathergoods brands such as Bottega Veneta, Gucci and Sergio Rossi, said it had chosen the name Kering for its re-branding.
Chief executive, Franc¸ois-Henri Pinault, said in the statement that changing the group’s identity is a “logical and necessary outcome” of the transformation it has undergone in the last few years, spinning off large-scale retail operations such as Redcats and Fnac to concentrate on apparel and accessories for luxury and sports-lifestyle.
The statment went on to point that Kering can be pronounced as ‘caring’ in English, saying this was a good reflection of its company culture of “taking care of our brands, people, stakeholders and the environment”. The stem ‘ker’, meaning home in Breton, is “a proud reminder of PPR’s origins in the Brittany region of France.
Commenting on the name-change, the Financial Times pointed out that the family name Pinault had been another possibility as the new name for the group and speculated that this might have been a better choice. It pointed out that commentators had already pointed out that the ‘kering’ can mean ‘dried out’ and ‘bereft of ideas’ in the Indonesian language.
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