Kering Reorganises Its Supply Chain and Keeps Production in Italy

Luca de Meo, Kering’s chief executive, set out the group’s manufacturing course in Milan on 30 September 2026. Italy stays at its centre, he said, while a planned supply-chain reorganisation will cut the layers between the group and the people who make its products.

● In brief

• De Meo described the group’s supply chain as overly fragmented, with too many layers, and confirmed that a reorganisation is being prepared.
• On the same day, Kering opened the first academic year of the Kering Accademia per le Eccellenze in Milan, designed to strengthen Italian craftsmanship and train the next generation of specialist skills across the group. The academy scales up an initiative that began at Pomellato.
• Asked about the Gucci sneakers labelled “Made in China” that went on sale in September, de Meo said the decision was driven by specific technical requirements.
• He ruled out any interest in a minority stake in Armani, noting that Kering is not named in Giorgio Armani’s will and that the group is focused on other challenges.

● Why it matters

For a group under financial pressure, production is often one of the first places where costs come under scrutiny, and Kering is answering that pressure by keeping production in Italy and tightening the structure around it.

• A quarter of Kering’s suppliers already delivers 98% of its sourcing, so the reorganisation starts from a base in which a small group of suppliers carries almost all of the volume.
• With 85% of production in Italy, the reorganisation turns the workshops, tanneries and specialised suppliers the group works with there from a cost line into the asset the recovery is built on, while Kering closes stores, 84 of them by July.
• The academy opened in Milan on the same day makes the direction clearer: Kering is investing in where luxury is made and in who will know how to make it in the years ahead.
• Declining an Armani stake keeps capital and management attention on the maisons Kering already owns.