When Richemont chair Johann Rupert first approached Nicolas Bos about becoming chief executive of the Swiss luxury group he controls, he was rebuffed. Bos, the chief executive and creative director of Van Cleef & Arpels, did not yet want to change roles after a strong run at the Richemont-owned jeweller with sales more than doubling in five years, according to estimates from HSBC. “When I first forced Nicolas to consider it, which was quite a while ago, he was having so much fun growing [Van Cleef] that he actually declined the offer, which I found very nice,” Rupert, a South African billionaire and the group’s controlling shareholder, told reporters in May.
“That’s the kind of person you want, somebody who doesn’t want to have all the power.” That changed this month when the Geneva-based group announced it would overhaul the chief executive role , giving the occupier more power and oversight over all the group’s brands. Bos was named to the newly expanded position, starting on Jun 1, while current chief executive Jerome Lambert will become chief operating officer.
Bos, a Frenchman who is well-liked by colleagues and who has spent his whole career at Richemont, takes on the job at a challenging moment for the industry. Luxury growth is slowing from a pandemic-era boom, the outlook for the key Chinese market remains dim and questions about longer-term succession at Richemont persist. Up until now, most decision-making at the group — which also owns high-end j.
