Editor’s Note
Dior’s recent acquisitions of two certified French heritage manufacturers, FG Manufacture and Oteline, mark a strategic move by the LVMH-owned house to vertically integrate its high jewelry production. This underscores the luxury sector’s focus on securing artisanal expertise and controlling the entire value chain for its most exclusive creations.
The LVMH group’s house has purchased FG Manufacture and Oteline, two companies certified as “Entreprises du Patrimoine Vivant” (Living Heritage Companies), in order to “integrate the entire production chain in high jewelry.”
Consolidating and securing the industrial base by strengthening the high-end segment is the strategy that Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH (owner of Les Echos), outlined to financial analysts at the end of January. And this is what Christian Dior, one of the luxury group’s “houses,” recently led by Delphine Arnault, did last summer by taking over Oteline and FG Manufacture, two SMEs in the Lyon region that operate as subcontractors for major brands in jewelry and watchmaking.
Christian Dior, which launched its jewelry department in the late 1990s under the direction of designer Victoire de Castellane, did not previously have an integrated industrial base for its jewelry in France. At the end of 2022, the company also took control of another of its subcontractors, Pedemonte Group, this time in Italy.