Luxury trades on the idea of the individual house: a founder, a workshop, a signature. Yet most of the names on the world's grandest shopping streets belong to a handful of groups, and those groups shape everything from who designs the collections to how much a bag costs. Knowing who owns what is one of the simplest ways to understand the industry.
This guide sets out the main groups and the notable independents, with their latest full-year figures as of October 2026. Ownership changes, so we will update it as new results are published. For any individual house, the "parent group" is listed on its Casadi brand page, and you can set houses side by side with the brand compare tool.
LVMH: the largest
LVMH describes itself as "the world's leading luxury products group", gathering more than 75 brands. It reported revenue of €80.8 billion in 2025, down from €84.7 billion in 2024, with a retail network of over 6,280 stores.
Fashion and leather goods is the core of the business. That division alone generated €37.8 billion in revenue in 2025, according to the group's key figures, alongside significant businesses in wines and spirits, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and jewellery, and selective retailing.
Its fashion houses include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine, Loewe and Fendi. Each house has its own creative director, which is why moves between LVMH houses make headlines of their own. Phoebe Philo's independent label, profiled in our piece on Old Céline, has minority backing from LVMH.
Kering: a group in transition
Kering, chaired by François-Henri Pinault, lists its houses as Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin and Ginori 1735, plus Kering Eyewear.
Its 2025 results, published in February 2026, reported revenue of €14.7 billion, down 13 per cent as reported and 10 per cent on a comparable basis. The figures exclude Kering Beauté, which the group agreed to sell to L'Oréal as part of a strategic partnership, with closing expected in the first half of 2026.
Gucci remains the largest house by far, with 2025 revenue of €6 billion, down 22 per cent as reported. Saint Laurent reported €2.6 billion and Bottega Veneta €1.7 billion, the latter stable as reported. Kering's chief executive, Luca de Meo, said the 2025 performance "does not reflect the Group's true potential". For the creative story behind Gucci's swings, read our history of its reinventions.
Richemont: jewellery first
Richemont, chaired by Johann Rupert, is best known for jewellery and watches rather than fashion. For the year to 31 March 2026, it reported sales of €22.4 billion, up 11 per cent at constant exchange rates.
Its jewellery houses, Buccellati, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Vhernier, generated €16.5 billion of that. Its specialist watchmakers include A. Lange & Söhne, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin; the group announced in January 2026 an agreement to sell Baume & Mercier to the Damiani Group. In fashion and accessories, Richemont owns Alaïa, Chloé, Delvaux, dunhill, Gianvito Rossi, Montblanc, Peter Millar, Purdey and Serapian, among others.
Prada Group: Milan's group, now with Versace
Prada Group's houses include Prada, Miu Miu, Church's, Car Shoe, Marchesi 1824 and, since the completion of the acquisition on 2 December 2025, Versace. The group reported 2025 net revenues of €5.718 billion, up 9 per cent at constant currency and 8 per cent organically, and described it as its twentieth consecutive quarter of growth.
The independents: Chanel and Hermès
Two of the most powerful names in luxury sit outside the big groups.
[Chanel](/brands/chanel) is owned by Chanel Limited, which describes itself as "a private company and parent of the Chanel group". It reported 2025 revenues of $19.3 billion, up 2 per cent on a comparable basis, and operating profit of $4.7 billion. Chanel employed 38,000 people at the end of 2025 and notes that it has acquired many specialist suppliers, known collectively as the Métiers d'art; its finance chief said the house invested more than $700 million in 2025 to acquire long-standing suppliers.
[Hermès](/brands/hermes) is publicly listed in Paris but operates very differently from the conglomerates. It reported 2025 revenue of €16 billion, up 9 per cent at constant exchange rates, with recurring operating income of €6.6 billion, or 41 per cent of sales. Executive chairman Axel Dumas credited "an exclusive and qualitative network" and "strong vertical integration". On those figures, Hermès is now larger than Kering by revenue, and roughly four times its size by recurring operating income.
Why ownership matters to you
Ownership is not just a business story. It influences what ends up in your wardrobe in several ways.
- Creative appointments. Groups move designers between houses. Matthieu Blazy went from Kering's Bottega Veneta to the independent Chanel; Demna moved within Kering from Balenciaga to Gucci.
- Pricing and distribution. Kering reported that its houses were deliberately making wholesale distribution more exclusive in 2025, which shapes where and how you can buy.
- Craft investment. Chanel and Hermès both emphasise owning their supply chains, which they present as protecting quality and savoir-faire.
- Resale value. Supply discipline, more achievable for some houses than others, is one reason certain bags hold value, as we explain in our resale guide.
A note on the figures
Companies report in different currencies and to different year-ends: Richemont's year ends on 31 March, Chanel reports in US dollars, and some figures are stated at constant rather than actual exchange rates. The numbers above are taken directly from each company's own publications and are not adjusted for comparison. Treat them as an indication of scale rather than a league table.
For more on the business of luxury, explore the Journal.