LVMH Appoints New Manufacturing Chief to Expand Its Industrial and Métiers d’Art Division

LVMH places manufacturing excellence at the heart of its strategy. The French luxury group has appointed Ludovic Pauchard as the group's new director of industry and craftsmanship and executive chairman of Métiers d'Art, the holding company that brings together the company's key trades and supply chains. The appointment will take effect on September 1 and Pauchard will report directly to Stéphane Bianchi, the group's CEO.

From this new transversal position, Pauchard will be responsible for driving a common industrial strategy for all the group's maisons, ensuring operational excellence and sustainability along the entire value chain. His mandate includes coordinating the industrial managers of the various brands, designing transformation plans and protecting artisanal know-how as a long-term competitive advantage.

The appointment is recognition of the central role that production has assumed in contemporary luxury, especially following LVMH's commitment to vertical integration. "Pauchard has been key to Louis Vuitton's growth since 2003, supporting the creative vision of our designers and raising quality standards," said Pietro Beccari, chairman and CEO of the luxury brand. "His expertise will be instrumental in ensuring the excellence of our products and preserving the universal desire they generate," added Bianchi.

An engineer by training from École Polytechnique and Ensta, Ludovic Pauchard began his career at Michelin before joining Louis Vuitton in 2003. After holding various positions in production, he was industrial director of women's footwear in 2008 and then head of manufacturing in the United States. Since 2015, he has led leather goods production in France, with 33 workshops and more than 10,000 employees under his responsibility, and since 2019 he has been leading all of the brand's industrial activities, including purchasing, development, supply chain, quality and operational excellence.

Ludovic Pauchard has been, until now, industrial vice president of Louis Vuitton

With this appointment, LVMH reinforces its commitment to consolidate craftsmanship as a strategic asset, especially in a context of increasing pressure on production models and traceability. The new phase of Métiers d'Art, which was born in 2015 to ensure the sourcing of unique materials and techniques, is thus aligned with the overall objective of ensuring competitiveness, sustainability and industrial resilience in the face of an increasingly demanding market.

LVMH, which posted revenues of over €86 billion in 2024, contracted its turnover by 2% in the first quarter of 2025 to €20,311 million, affected by geopolitical uncertainty and the tariff threat. The fashion and leather goods division, the largest in the group, fell by 4% to €10.108 billion, while perfumes and cosmetics and selective distribution managed to maintain stability.