Kering doubles down on confusing ‘leather intensity’ target
Luxury group Kering has reiterated its intention to reduce what it calls the “leather intensity” of its products by 30% by 2028, with 2025 as the baseline.
It announced this target at a Capital Markets Day presentation in Florence in April and repeated it on June 4 in a new impact report assessing its sustainability performance over the last ten years.
The group has explained that it will calculate “leather intensity” by the number of square-metres of finished leather it consumes to earn €1 million from sales of leathergoods and footwear. It said it wanted to “decouple growth” from its brands’ dependency on leather.
But at the same time, it said its ambitions for the group’s biggest brand, Gucci, include earning an additional €1 billion from leathergoods by 2030. It wants Balenciaga to double its leathergoods business by the same year. It wants Bottega Veneta to continue to be “the ultimate symbol of luxury craftsmanship in leathergoods”, and describes leathergoods as “a strategic, key pillar for Saint Laurent”.
One of the potential shortcomings in the plan is that Kering will be able to achieve its “leather intensity” target simply by putting its prices up. If it sources the same square-meterage of leather and makes the same number of bags from the material but charges 30% more, it will fulfil its pledge.
We have done our best to interpret Kering’s mixed messages about leather in a detailed article in World Leather April-May.
A follow-up article, specifically examining the implications for Gucci, will appear in World Leather June-July.
