Marc Jacobs: Label longing

Paris, Oct. 2 (Reuters): Marc Jacobs, the star designer who turned Louis Vuitton from a staid luggage-maker into one of the world’s biggest luxury brands, is leaving to focus on floating his own label, a source close to the French company’s parent LVMH said today.

The move follows a series of leadership changes at Louis Vuitton, LVMH’s biggest profit- and revenue-contributor, aimed at helping the brand regain some of its lost prestige after a decline in sales growth over the past year.

“Marc Jacobs is leaving Vuitton and will focus on his own brand,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

LVMH and Marc Jacobs declined to comment, but the source said the designer aims to float his business — which is estimated to generate sales of around 500 million euros — in an initial public offering. “There is an IPO project for the MJ brand,” the source said.

Some industry observers have suggested Jacobs has been encouraged by the success of Michael Kors, the US brand whose shares and sales have been enjoying stellar growth since its IPO late last year. LVMH owns nearly all of Marc Jacobs International, the operating company, while the trademark ownership is split equally between LVMH, Jacobs and Jacobs’s partner Robert Duffy.

“Marc Jacobs’s departure is not a big surprise,” said analyst Antoine Belge at HSBC. “But if the IPO is confirmed, LVMH will loose one of its fastest growing brands.”