Louis Vuitton Sets its Sights on Lebanon and Mongolia
Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, continues his quest for global luxury handbag domination. Louis Vuitton is opening new stores in Lebanon and Mongolia. Yves Carcelle chatted with the press at the opening of LVMH's first "global store" in Dubai. He said that the company is not planning on closing any stores in the next year, nor has it cut its investment in new stores.
"Sometimes in our industry there is a tendency to follow your ego and sometimes open stores where you don't have the market, or stores too big for your potential -- we never do that," Carcelle said. "When we open a big store, we know that there is a market, we know the financials. So we never have to close a store for economic reasons."
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The company has opened three stores in Dubai since 1997, and plans to double the size of its outlet in the city's Mall of the Emirates, Carcelle said. Its global store is in Dubai Mall, the world's largest shopping centre, which opened last year.
"Dubai is a very dynamic city," he said. "At the end of the day, when it comes to the crisis, the client finds the situation of retail in Dubai very good."
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Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, will start a visit to the United Arab Emirates tomorrow.
Dubai we understand. Lebanon makes sense. But Mongolia? The Age reports that the Louis Vuitton store has already opened in Ulaanbaatar, which contrasts oddly with all the Soviet-era communist style buildings. The city already has a BMW dealership, a Mercedes Benz dealership and a Dior boutique and is home to one million people. Luxury stores are thriving. But many people still live in yurts and 30% of the population lives below the poverty level. Whatever would Ghengis Khan have thought?
