American designer Marc Jacobs, who has held the helm as creative director for Louis Vuitton is said to be leaving the brand. Jacobs has decided to focus on the development of his own brand, Marc Jacobs. This was according to a source that was close to Vuitton's parent company LVMH. Marc Jacobs has been credited for much of Louis Vuitton's success in the past few years.
Jacobs departure follows a series of changes over at Louis Vuitton. The luxury brand is known as being the biggest profit and revenue collector of LVMH. The brand has apparently been suffering a decline of sales growth within the last year.
According to the source from LVMH, "Marc Jacobs is leaving Vuitton and will focus on his own brand,". The source has insisted on his anonymity.
Both the designer and LVMH have declined to comment on the departure but Marc Jacobs was once quoted, in an interview that was on the Louis Vuitton website that, "Change is a great and horrible thing. People love it and hate it at the same time. Without change you just don't move."
The anonymous source also said that part of Marc Jacob's plans was to float his personal brand, estimated to make around 500 million euros in sales every year, and make it go public.
There have been industry analysts that have hinted that Jacobs may have been inspired by the success of other US designers, such as Michael Kors, who have also taken on an IPO project.
LVMH is still the majority owner for Marc Jacobs International. The trademark ownership for the company is evenly split between LVMH, Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy, Jacob's partner.
An analyst from HSBC has said that Jacob's decision to leave the brand is not a huge surprise. However, if does decide to go public with his own brand, then LVMH could potentially lose one of its strongest and fastest growing brands.
Jacobs was with Louis Vuitton for 16 years.
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