Post by SMART FASHION COUNCIL

PRINTEMPS JUST ENDED NINE MONTHS WITHOUT A CEO — AND THE PERSON CHOSEN IS A MORGAN STANLEY, MCKINSEY, LVMH, CARREFOUR, AND ZADIG VETERAN Remy Baume becomes CEO of Groupe Printemps effective June 8, appointed by the supervisory board after nearly nine months without a chief executive following Jean-Marc Bellaiche's departure in September 2025. Baume is 50, holds degrees from ESCP Business School and Columbia Business School. The career that precedes this appointment is one of the most complete commercial biographies available in French retail: Morgan Stanley investment banker. McKinsey & Company consultant. Director of investments at Groupe Arnault / LVMH. Strategy and non-food operations at Carrefour. President of Kidiliz Group — children's fashion for Kenzo, Paul Smith, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Levi's. CEO of Zadig & Voltaire from 2020 until early 2025. The advisory board's framing is the correct one: "Rémy's career path demonstrates his ability to combine strategic vision with operational excellence in a highly competitive environment. Coupled with his in-depth understanding of transformation, retail and branding, this makes him a major asset in securing sustainable growth for Printemps." Baume's own opening statement is precise and Parisian: "Retail is reinventing itself, but its most essential drivers — novelty, pleasure, quality and hospitality — remain unchanged. Since its origins, Printemps has been one of the pioneers of modern retail." He inherits a genuinely complex portfolio. 20 department stores including the Boulevard Haussmann flagship, New York, and Doha. 9 Citadium stores. E-commerce assets including Printemps.com, Place des Tendances, and Made in Design. 3,000 employees. 3,500 brand partners. A repositioning toward premium and luxury that has involved painful store closures — including Rennes, with 229 proposed redundancies — and ongoing digital transformation. The New York concept store opened in March. The Doha presence serves the Gulf market disrupted by the Iran war this year. And the group has been navigating ownership under the Qatari-backed Divine Investments SA since 2013. The French department store model sits inside the same structural pressure affecting Saks Global — just exited bankruptcy — and Bloomingdale's — at +10.2% comps and thriving. The difference is pricing discipline, brand positioning, and leadership clarity. Baume provides the third. Whether Printemps can deliver the first two is the question. 🏎️ Join the SMART FASHION COUNCIL Connect with like-minded builders, access real-time insights on how AI creates new layer value: https://lnkd.in/gBAp8s_h #ai #chrematistics #fashion #crypto #blockchain #innovation #defi #vc #angel #smart