Good evening. I'm delighted to present to you the figures for 2025. To begin with, a good piece of news, I think we'll make it through the winter.
Certains de.
Some.
[Foreign language] Commentaires avaient des inquiétudes, surtout certains.
Commentators had concerns, especially some journalists. I believe we can say more seriously that the results of the group are solid.
Assez.
In a rather challenging, disrupted climate, economically, from the geopolitical standpoint, but we've managed to get through this period. 2026 won't be simple either, but one thing at a time. So, revenue just over EUR 80 billion. Let's state that it's twice what it was 10 years ago. Organic growth slightly negative on the year, but positive in the second half.
CFO will tell you more about the figures. Operating margin of 22%, way above the average of the last 20 years. Negative foreign exchange impact, an impact that I don't think is going to improve this year for various reasons, and an economic context that is changing swiftly, disrupted, sometimes unforeseeable. And in spite of that, through management efforts, and I'd like to thank the executive committee that is with us here this evening for the efforts undertaken, both in order to expand the business and to contain costs, because this is a metric that is key for us. Cash flow is up, and in spite of everything that is thrown at us, including the taxes that were said to disappear but unfortunately won't disappear, we can return to that if the questions. But operating free cash flow reaches EUR 11.3 billion.
You'll see looking in greater detail at the figures that we have an improvement in the trend across our activities, and this is maintained by the strong desirability of our brands. Numerous initiatives taken across our businesses. I'd cite here in no particular order, Vuitton, with Pietro Beccari, who has been heading up that business for years at my side in a masterly fashion. We've taken a great many initiatives. The most prominent and the most outstanding was the opening in Shanghai, and I visited a while back of the Vuitton ship, a museum that's the ship, not at sea, but on a square that's very successful, very successful for the brand, because every week I think there are about 100,000 people around that ship inside its magnificent, very refined, high-quality craftsmanship. Constructed and crafted by the Vuitton workshops and craftsmen. We've also expanded the Dior brand considerably.
Last year, we opened two houses in the United States, one in New York and one in Los Angeles, both highly creative and refined, also very successful. More recently, we opened a Maison Dior, also in Beijing, next to a new Vuitton house. A lot of activity, a lot of creation. Before going into the more specific details of the various activities, I'd like to emphasize here the new progress in the group's commitments. For us, it's of prime importance. You have the table on the screen showing everything we're achieving in great many important areas: climate, biodiversity, the commitment and engagement of our employees. Well, on the engagement, the roadmap, Balance 2021-2025, is very positive. We've reached all the commitments. Equal opportunities, that's borne fruit, those initiatives, 50% of women in key positions within the group.
Another key initiative, the Institute of Trades of Excellence, to preserve craftsmanship and has trained over 3,800 apprentices since it was established. On the environment, I'll be able to take your questions on that. The group's leadership was once again recognized because in the CDP, the Carbon Disclosure Project, we've reached the best score, AAA. Now, circular design, 41% of materials used to make the Maison's products now saw through the recycling progress. Recycling raw materials is up, and we've remained mobilized to protect and regenerate all our ecosystems. Let's now move to a brief but more detailed review of our business groups. Firstly, wines and spirits.
[Foreign language] Nos marques font preuve d'une bonne résilience.
In Wines and Spirits, our brands are displaying good resilience in a challenging context, difficult in particular for Cognac, which both in China and the United States is affected by tariffs that have exceeded our forecasts. So, for Cognac, we're facing a difficulty due to that development, but we're addressing it. We're trying to reach agreements. We've made progress with China. I hope we'll make progress with the United States if international relations are restored, and that should be hoped for. And Champagne is holding up well in a market that is less buoyant. Perhaps there were fewer celebrations in 2025, but Veuve Clicquot, in the largest market, the United States and Asia, is growing in volume terms. And also, a good year for Moët & Chandon, once again benefiting from high visibility.
We've resumed the partnership with Formula 1 Grand Prix races, and that's very promising for Moët & Chandon that celebrates every Formula 1 Grand Prix with a bottle of our Champagne. Rosé wines are also growing well. That was a good acquisition. It wasn't the case of all acquisitions, but that was particularly felicitous. So, we're way out in front, and we're leader for Rosé wine, be it Château d'Esclans, Minuty or Galoupet. Those Galoupet, those three acquisitions are faring very well. As I said, it's a bit more challenging for cognac, and that explains the results that you've seen for that business. Moving now to fashion and leather goods. The event of the week was the Dior show of haute couture. Everyone was wondering how it was going to unfold. We have a great creative artist that's never done couture. Will he be able to do that?
We attended the show yesterday. It was absolutely amazing. There were even spectators who were in tears. So moved were they by the creativity, the quality, the craftsmanship of the clothes. And John Galliano, the former creative artist of the house, whom we invited, who worked previously with Mr. Toledano, very successful too. Well, he was particularly moved to see such a success remotely. And so, Dior at the start of this year is fully benefiting from this creative renewal that is producing clothes for both men and women. It's the first time since Christian Dior that we have a creative director who produces all these products. And they're very much in demand at the start of the year. We'll see if it lasts. We must never be too optimistic, but it's off to a good start.
Vuitton, there again last week, very fine show by Pharrell Williams with some highly wearable clothes that's always desirable. Sometimes it drifts off a bit, but these were truly clothes that we wanted to buy, and some amazing Vuitton trunks. I won't give you the price. You may not believe this. What's more, most of them have been sold. There's some extraordinary cases, trunks, some of them produced by the same craftspeople who did the stained glass windows at Notre Dame. So, an absolutely unique show. That was for the events held this week. Let's also mention that in 2025, Louis Vuitton launched a makeup range that started off well after continuous success and very commendable, with perfumes that were created by a great creator, Mr. Cavallier, and continues without interruption to deliver double-digit growth. Yes, we can say that. It's no secret.
His perfumes are quite successful and are only sold in Dior stores. So, for fashion and leather goods, oh yes, we also have hired new designers last year at Celine, with the American creative director, Michael Rider, who's off to a good start at Loewe since Jonathan has left for Dior. We have Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who previously were in the United States. That's off to a good start. And at Fendi, Maria Grazia left Dior to join Fendi. She wanted to go back to Rome, and there she is. And the first show is going to be held in a fortnight. We'll see what that, but I'm very hopeful. So, all that's organized. Let's mention a great success, Loro Piana, that continues to go from strength to strength. We have just one problem at Loro Piana that we have to slow the growth.
We don't want to go too fast because the quality of products must be maintained. Soon it gets a bit carried away. We slow down at Loro Piana. I don't know if we've been out, but we've just bought a stake of the partners who've been with us since the start, Luisa and Pier Luigi Loro Piana, members of the family. We wanted to buy a, we bought a section. They wanted to keep a stake. I think we had 85%. So, we acquired half their investment, half their stake, because it's good to have the family. They're highly connected with the manufacturing techniques, places in the world where we can source excellent products. Pier Luigi Loro Piana goes regularly to Peru to look after the Vicuña. We actually saved that species that was totally in decline.
And thanks to that activity, I think we have a few thousand hectares in Peru where we breed the Vicuña. Very happy to be there. Otherwise, they would have been extinct. And so, we can produce great products with those animals. Here, we have some numbers experts. And I just want to say that the valuation at which we acquired the shares of our partners, their investment, I think is equal to 10 times or five times, perhaps, the value of their initial stake. In other words, when we acquired the company, I think we paid EUR 2 billion for it, right? And today, it's worth about EUR 10 billion. That's about the ratio. I'm saying that so that you can talk to other brands when they team up with us. Firstly, the companies progress, and they progress very well in maintaining their heritage.
The partners, the family partners, do get a very good deal. If you could spread the word, that would be useful to us. I think I've covered everything. Now, I can move to perfumes and cosmetics. Well, firstly, Christian Dior continues to innovate products that, for a large part, world leaders, the Sauvage, the world's best-selling men's fragrance, relaunched some 10 years ago, and far and away the world's leading men's fragrance. Also, makeup and lipstick. Dior, the leading luxury lipsticks globally in the world. One Dior lipstick is sold every two seconds. That's a lot of lipstick. And they're all manufactured in France with an R&D center that's one of the best in the world, if not the best, for cosmetics. Then, we have other activities with other brands that are less prestigious, even if they're smaller, less international, such as Guerlain. Also, has great products.
I'll answer questions on that if there are any. Let's move to watches and jewelry. Watches and jewelry. Still, on more recent acquisition, Tiffany that continues a very impressive record. Tiffany had excellent products, but we redirected the house so that it can develop in jewelry and high jewelry, fewer silver products. And we gradually renovated, and it's far from over. The rolling out the new store concept. And Tiffany, if we continue like that, perhaps we'll have to wait another 5-10 years, is likely to become the world's leading jewelry brand, which is no mean feat if we get there. But for the time being, we've opened, for example, a new Tiffany store in Tokyo at the end of last year. That was a huge success. It's got off to a very positive start. Bvlgari, at the end of the year, posted some quite outstanding figures.
You're familiar with the products, the Serpenti, Diva, etc. All these products are very successful. They're iconic and very promising for next year because jewelry is an area today. We see this in our main peers. Excellent Cartier, a great company, is expanding well. It's a promising sector. We're also developing jewelry very actively at Louis Vuitton. It has great potential. You'll see when we open the store on the Champs-Élysées. Lastly, watches with TAG Heuer, that is also developing very successfully. TAG Heuer benefits, like Moët does with the Formula 1. It's the official timekeeper for all Formula 1s. Hublot, Zenith, Chaumet have also brought out products, notably Hublot with the latest Big Bang collection that's very successful. Final business that I'd like to mention, Selective Retailing. There are the two main department stores in Paris, Le Bon Marché and La Samaritaine.
I won't go into detail, but they're iconic stores and stores that were well. La Samaritaine, not so well, but it's recovering. And we're changing the way it was managed because up until about a year ago, it was in conjunction with DFS. It was geared more to the duty-free customers. We're trying to manage that thanks to Mr. Wagner. Like Le Bon Marché, they obtained the same results as Le Bon Marché. That'll be great. And we're off to a good start. The outstanding business in the block of selective retailing is Sephora. Well, Sephora, in the space of a few years, we acquired it back in 1998 or 1999. It's become the unchallenged world leader for the retailing of cosmetic products, selective retailing, and that worldwide. What's very interesting is we only cover a very small portion of the world.
Everything remains to be done, even if we're posting very significant revenue. I won't let that secret out. Very good profitability, good growth. We're very hopeful. Mr. Motte is managing that in a masterly fashion. DFS, less interesting. We've sold most of it. We'll continue to exit slowly but surely. What can we say briefly about 2026? The outlook. I always say that in our businesses, I am optimistic in the medium term, but short term, it's very difficult to provide a serious forecast. So many events and the pace of decisions taken left and right in the various countries, it's extremely difficult to control all these geo-economic impacts on our companies. One thing I'm sure of is that the desire for high-quality products goes hand in hand with growing living standards in the world.
That's set to continue, even though through ups and downs in certain countries, some countries that are faring less well. The global trend is there. Long term, we can be optimistic. This year, there's no doubt that with continued geopolitical crises, with economic uncertainty, with the policies of certain countries, our own that are against companies to tax them to the hilt and create unemployment, I think there's a reason to be somewhat reserved. We'll apply the same technique as in 2025. We'll create some very fine products and sell them worldwide, open up fine stores, and manage things very closely, contain costs, do what we've done this year so that in 2026, cash flow is also up. Once again, I'd like to thank all employees who were with us this evening. This success is down to them. We're confident in the future.
I'd like to conclude by saying that one of the advantages of the group is that we're a family group. The analysts may not like this, but a family group isn't riveted to the quarterly results. It invests in the medium term. We create products for the long term. We're not mesmerized by what's going to happen in the coming quarter, even if it's important. But we take the long-term view, and for the time being, it has stood us in good stead. That's something I don't know if it'll please observers. The family group has about 50% of LVMH's capital. Since now, at the start of the new year, we're entitled to acquire a bit more. We were blocked up till now at the maximum. This year, we'll cross the 50% threshold. We'll own over 50% of the share capital.
So, we believe in what we do, and we're showing it in that way. Thank you very much. Madame Cabanis, our Chief Financial Officer, will go into greater detail than I have for the 2025 financials. Thank you.
[Foreign language] Mesdames, Messieurs, bonsoir.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here. So, let's look into the financial aspects for 2025 in more detail. Some key figures. I shall not remain too long on this slide because Mr. Arnault has given you explanations. A few comments nonetheless. Sales were stable or slightly down. Organic growth -1% over the year, but an improvement in H2 because we renewed with organic growth to the tune of +1% in H2 for the year as a whole. Sales were down 5% at a current exchange rate in published data because there was a negative currency effect.
I mean, of course, the main invoicing currencies, the dollar, renminbi, and yen, were all down. Operating profit was down 9%. A significant portion, indeed, most of it, indeed, most of the decline is due to currency effects. And as Mr. Arnault pointed out, sound financial position, free cash flow standing at EUR 11.3 billion, reflecting the discipline that our teams were able to display in a less favorable environment. Cash flow was up 8%, even though profit itself was down. If you look at the details, starting with sales themselves, -5% in published data, there was a currency effect of 3%. Now, the currency effect was not homogeneous over the years. You remember we started off in Q1 with a +3% positive effect, therefore. And in Q4, the currency effect was negative to the tune of -6%.
So, you have an average over the year, but we're ending the year with the negative effect, 6%. So, we have to monitor exchange rates for the rest of the year. And we don't have much of a scope effect. This was just organic growth. Regarding the geographic balance, things have not changed. The main territories, namely the United States, Europe, and Asia, account for 26% of our sales. Japan is slightly down to 8%. In other countries, up by 1 point to 14%, with the Middle East displaying significant growth. Looking now at sales by region over the year on a quarterly basis, you start with the two ends, the U.S. and Europe. These two markets were stable. Slight decline in Europe, but they have a reversed curve. In H1, there was more growth in Europe because the dollar was high and tourists were buying more in Europe.
There was a reverse trend in H2 because the dollar became cheaper, and then people were buying in America itself. We have a basis of comparison which explains the difference in Japan. We had also an unfavorable starting basis of comparison in the previous year, but not as extreme. Asia, other than Japan, enjoyed a similar development, slightly down over the year. If you look at the organic growth, we have wines and spirits down in organic numbers, down 5%. Likewise, fashion and leather goods. We have 3% and 4% respectively for watches and jewelry and selective retailing. If you look at the other side of the screen, you find that when you compare H1 and H2, you find that there was a significant acceleration for most of our businesses between H1 and H2.
If you look at organic growth by quarter and by business, here we have an improvement of organic trends for most businesses in H2. Wines and Spirits, Champagnes and Spirits were resilient. Cognac and indeed Spirits in general were down, and that is because of the specific circumstances in the US. Fashion and Leather Goods enjoyed a significant improvement starting in Q3, driven by local customers and a resumption of growth in Asia. A less strong basis of comparison for Japan. Some areas of improvement, pockets of improvement, reflecting specific initiatives, new creative initiatives, but also outstanding Louis Vuitton stores and other initiatives taken by all the houses. On Watches and Jewelry, there was a significant acceleration in H2, especially in Q3. We have a resumption of growth for the Watches business with an acceleration of Bulgari, but also a transformation plan on Tiffany, which is now bearing fruit.
There's still the weight of legacy, but we are gaining ground quarter after quarter. Selective Retailing has enjoyed, of course, Sephora's significant growth in H2, and perfume and cosmetics were stable with a very sustained innovation policy. We were highly selective in our retailing business, and that made a big difference on our profits. If you look at the profit from recurring operations, so we're slightly down, down 9% in published data. I was saying earlier on that most of the negative effect was currency effect, and you have the illustration right there. We have a EUR 1 billion effect due to exchange rate fluctuations. Without this, the decline would only be 4% on profits from recurring operations. Regarding the various business lines, and again, on current operating profit, on wines and spirits, no surprises there. That is the one business suffering the strongest decline. There was a currency effect.
There's also lower volumes and lower mix, and the first effects of trade tensions with China and the US. Fashion and Leather Goods also significantly down, mostly because of the currency effect together with lower sales, but profit from recurring operations sitting at 35%, very high and much higher than the group's long-term history. Watches and Jewelry displayed profit from recurring operations stable, even though there's a significant currency effect and other headwinds related to tariffs and the price of gold and the cost of Tiffany's transformation, significant capital expenditure there. But that plan is, as I said, bearing fruit. Perfumes and Cosmetics, as I was saying earlier on, there's an improvement, up 8%. So, there's a double positive effect of, A, we're being very selective in investment to keep our brands attractive, and there was significant work on the model's effectiveness, and that certainly paid off.
Then a significant positive effect on selective retailing. There are two effects there. As I said, Sephora's performance, which has been growing both in terms of volume and margin, so a double effect there. But also, we were able to redress the balance for DFS. You may remember that we were losing hundreds of millions of EUR on DFS, and now we are breaking even at long last. Then, if you look at the structure of our profits proper, starting with the gross margin, it's slightly down, down 80 basis points over the year, but in H2, it was up 40 billion. There are two reasons for that. We found on a number of categories, there was some organic growth that made it possible to absorb costs. There are a number of non-recurring factors that we had in 2024.
The currency effect at the end of the year was higher than it was in H1, but the improvement of organic profit more than compensated that negative effect. Regarding operating expenses, they were down 4%. That reflects the agility, the responsiveness, the discipline of our teams in a less favorable environment, but also our ability to manage costs and be more selective in our expenses. If you look at the development, general marketing expenses or selling expenses, you have selling and marketing. You have selling expenses were stable on a constant rate basis. Marketing expenses were down. But if you look at the ratio over the revenue, the ratio remained stable regarding marketing expenses. And then G&A were down 5%. There's a double effect there. There was, well, a cost-saving discipline. And then some costs of 2024 were non-recurring, in particular the Olympic Games that, of course, was non-recurrent.
And now, if you look at all that, the profit from recurring operations stood at -9% at EUR 17.7 billion. If you look at other operating income and expenses, well, by definition, these are not recurring expenses. Now, here you have mostly costs related to the disposal of Greater China for DFS and a number of other markets for DFS. Now, that is an accounting expense. It has no cash effect. The financial profits, I'll get back to that in a moment, financial expense, rather. And then our tax stood at EUR 5.5 billion, up 4 percentage points. And that is, of course, that's the effect of the supposedly exceptional tax that is now being renewed. Anyway, there's this special tax in France for big companies. Anyway, the net profit group share stood at EUR 10.9 billion, down 13%. The result now, there are four lines there.
The cost of net debt of EUR 348 million. So that was down, well, lower rates, but also lower volumes of debt outstanding for the year. The interest on lease liabilities, and that is the accretion expenses. That's because of an accounting standard that is, as you may remember, IFRS 16. Because rates were up, that accretion expense was up. The cost of our currency hedging was stable, slightly increased in the context of highly volatile exchange rates. Of course, there are some currencies that suffered a decline vis-à-vis the euro. Then there is another issue of volatility in our net profit, and that is the fair value adjustment of our financial assets. Now, on these assets, there's a mark-to-market in accounting terms. So we have this adjustment at 31 December. There was an EUR 800 million appreciation. So this has a positive effect on the result.
Now, these are unrealized capital gains. This is an accounting exercise, but this issue comes up. We assess these capital gains or losses, but this has no economic or cash effect. On the balance sheet, nothing new. The changes in exchange rates had an effect on most items of the balance sheet because they are denominated in euros, both on the asset and liability sides. Because there was no major operation, very few mergers or acquisitions, there's not much change. Of course, there was the acquisition in Loro Piana, but we mentioned that earlier. Other than that, nothing to mention. A few words about operating free cash flow. As we said earlier, it stood at EUR 11.3 billion, up 8%, even though profits were down. That is because, as you can see, we managed WCR very carefully. We were very selective on capital expenditure.
On the tax paid, this is down. That reflects the effects of provisional tax payments and settlement of the final tax, but of course, lower profit. There was the one big beautiful bill act. You may remember that changed the depreciation schedule, and this had a positive cash effect for us. Capital expenditure accounted for 5.7% of sales. This is in line with our long-term historic average. Then, of course, there was a significant generation of cash flow reflecting our financial soundness, but also the group's responsiveness. We were able to generate more than adequate cash flow in a less favorable environment while still keeping capital expenditure where it should be to remain competitive. Now, as you can see, the net debt was down in 2025 for the third year running, standing at EUR 6.9 billion, so slightly below 10%.
Indeed, in line with the year 2020, that was the year before we acquired Tiffany. Then finally, and this will conclude my presentation, we will propose at the AGM in April a dividend of EUR 13 per share. This is stable compared to last year. As you know, the group's dividend policy is to maintain a dividend at a stable level when we face challenging times. But of course, when we have more favorable periods of growth, then of course, the dividends grow in line with our profits. There was an interim dividend of EUR 5.5 in December. The balance will be EUR 7.5. That will be paid out in April. Thank you for your attention.
Very good. We're available to answer a few questions. Kindly introduce yourself when you ask your question.
Good afternoon, Antoine Belge from BNP Paribas. Three questions, if I may.
Firstly, would it be possible to return to the performance of China in Q4 and also to know a little about what are your, perhaps not forecast, but how you view the developments of the Chinese market that has turned down slightly since the summer? Second question, fashion and leather goods business, could we have some metrics on Louis Vuitton Dior? Dior has gone above the average of the division. One of the great surprises today is the margin increases with very good cost control. Mr. Arnault, you mentioned that with exchange rate impacts that the improvement is going to continue. The impact was quite high on the operating income, but thanks to currency hedging, there should be a slightly more remote or postponed effect with the euro/dollar rate that has moved, I think, to 1.20 today.
Regarding the development of China in Q4 and Chinese clientele, if you look at the change between Q3 and Q4 on customers, to make it simple, I mean, we had more or less the same numbers. There was a slowdown in American customers, but the basis of comparison was a bit complicated if you compare with Q4 of last year. The improvement trends that we noted in Q3 remained stable. We have a positive development in our Chinese customers, constant in local customers, and improvement in offshore.
On Christian Dior?
Well, on Dior, difficult to give you forecast. Less than a month that we resumed selling products by the new creative director. It's off to a good start, but if I say that it's off to too good a start, you're going to anticipate astronomical figures.
If I say that it's so-so, you're going to think that it's not working. So let's wait until the next meeting. But for 2025, I mean, there's nothing new. We find that the numbers are slightly above average. But if you look at the two brands, they are both growing quarter after quarter from Q1 to Q4. Of course, these improvements are worth noting. As regards exchange rates and the margins, regarding exchange rates next year, we expect the same effects, the same currency effects, but the timetable will be reversed. In other words, what you saw in the numbers I gave you will be more or less the same, but probably in terms of timeline, it will be the reverse order. There are hedging effects, but they won't be very different from this year. So in terms of financial impact, this won't make much difference.
[Foreign languahe]Bonsoir. Merci. Erwan Rambourg.
Good evening, Erwan Rambourg from HSBC. Three questions from my side, if I may. On Louis Vuitton, you saw quite major initiatives. Any further possibilities for diversification in hospitality or other growth drivers going forward for Vuitton? Secondly, a question on Moët Hennessy. When you appointed Jean-Jacques with the help of Alexandre for that asset, you mentioned restructuring of about 18-24 months. We're about halfway there. How do you view the situation and the future? And lastly, an update on Tiffany. Fine acceleration in Q4, perhaps more Bvlgari than Tiffany. I may be mistaken. An update on where you are in the retail overhaul? Mr. Arnault, I recall you mentioned that the before and after increased the revenue by about 25% like for like. I don't know what percentage of the real estate you've overhauled. And could you talk about productivity and the brand at 26%?
I'll answer on Vuitton. We have a great many initiatives. For example, you mentioned I didn't mention that, that of Seoul, where we're going soon with the Vuitton teams. We have a quite remarkable achievement there that links the history of Vuitton. A museum example of what we've been doing at Vuitton since the 19th century, together with new products in a quite spectacular space. And it's off to a flying start. Concerning Vuitton, it's not a brand that we really want to diversify. We already have a great many products. We have a great many lines. We have two creative designers I'll repeat. It's also the view of Pietro and Damien Bertrand. Unlike Dior, Vuitton is not a matter of fashion. It's one of leather goods, cases, and trunks. And we're focusing on that instead of diversifying somewhat erratically. We're remaining focused.
It's not because from time to time there's a hotel room, as we have at Dior at Avenue Montaigne, a room that's of interest, a hospitality that's interesting. It means we can receive VIPs and give them certain advantages when they're in the house. But Vuitton's not going to go in the hotel business. We agreed on that. Vuitton is focusing instead of diversifying. We have already many product lines to develop, to refine further. You see this image here. We have the latest campaign. That's a very compelling image for Vuitton. It's the iconic product of Vuitton. In fact, this campaign has yielded truly remarkable results. And yet, it's a product that's been around for some 50 years. So Vuitton is a truly historic brand with a high focus on quality in which we seek to bring technical refinements.
The trunks that we saw at the show last year, Vuitton's the only one that can do that with the glasses that are the same as the stained glasses of Notre Dame, the same craftsmen. If you call it diversification, but for Vuitton, it's truly its core business. For Moët Hennessy, do you like to answer?
[Foreign language] Vous avez un micro pour Jean-Jacques?
Do you have a micro for Jean-Jacques?
[Foreign language ] Merci.
[Foreign language] J'aurais été déçu de ne pas prendre la parole.
I would have been disappointed not to take the floor. Listen, where do we stand on restructuring?
It's not really restructuring as such. Together with Alexandre, we took up this business knowing that it would take some time to return to growth. There's the matter of what we have to offer, a number of initiatives were commented by Mr. Arnault, especially around Formula 1.
But there's also of Pharrell Williams at Moët & Chandon. Likewise, Hennessy, we are trying to improve our offer, improve creation, make our brands more desirable. There's also the issue of demand. Demand is not particularly geared towards us. If you look at the main market in the US, vodka, tequila, whiskeys are down. The only category that is growing at all is the ready-to-drink. So small cans sold at EUR 3.5. At times of crisis, we say that's the end of it. This is a structural thing. But no, we can see this is cyclical. The only thing that is growing in the market is the quality of spirits selling at $3-$4 a go. Of course, these are small amounts, but this reflects low demand. So maybe 18, maybe 24 months. But of course, demand should be there.
It's not quite there yet, at least not in the U.S.
[Foreign language]
Over to Stéphane for Tiffany.
Yeah, on Tiffany, as you said, we're right in the middle of the transformation plan that started at 2021 and will continue into the out years on the stores. But over and above the stores, it's also a transformation in terms of product. Tiffany was hugely focused on silver products, and we're now pushing gold. We are pushing high jewelry. The high jewelry has tripled in four years. The high jewelry rate has tripled in four years. That's what's happening. Silver, however, has declined by over a third since we took it over. And there's to sell more icons, as Mr. Arnault mentioned, and icons based on gold, diamonds, platinum.
So it's a mammoth transformation plan that's underway between the old and the new mix, the former mix. Silver. The bridal. The bridal were negative, and on the new mix, we're growing double-digit. The problem is that the new mix, for the time being, is still relatively weak as compared to the former Tiffany. That's the first thing. The second thing, in terms of the new store concepts, the new concepts represented about a third in terms of number of stores at the end of 2025, and about 42% of sales was against 31% of the previous year. So it's growing, but it remains less than half our sales, and it only represents a third of the network. I know a wonderful store that was revamped on Fifth Avenue, which in 2025 beat the never-achieved record in terms of sales.
And that has taken a weight in the December mix that's quite considerable because it's almost doubled its mix in December as compared to the rest of the year. So the stores are working extremely well. The difference, just to end on your question, the difference between the former concept's performance and the new concept is between some 15-20 points. So it's hugely promising for the future.
Bonsoir. Luca Solca from Bernstein.
My name is Luca Solca from Bernstein. We find that you're doing fine work to keep costs under control, to have targeted capital expenditure, to monitor WCR. What are the opportunities for 2026? Can you keep up this effort? Is there also a scope effect to take into account? Is that on the menu, as it were? And could there be possible disposals? You have disposed of a number of DFS stores already.
Now, the question number two, and this may be also related to what Jean-Jacques Guiony just told us, what's your thinking on demand by segment from consumers? We find ourselves in a market where the middle class seems to be slowing down compared to the well-off. At least people have been earning money on the stock exchange. But for the sort of the middle class, these customers, do you—is there more work to do to stimulate the demand from them? And then about watches, we saw TAG Heuer's leadership at the beginning of the year. This seems to be changing. How is that business changing? Are you remaining dedicated to these various brands of watches? Because this seems to be a challenging business right now.
[Foreign language]La première question.
Well, to answer your first question, one can't speak of a menu. We work à la carte.
So it's very difficult for me to answer your question, except when we come to the desired dish. Actually, there are two segments. It's always the same. And that's been the case for a long time now. There's the segment of the affluent customers, customers who have the means, who are very wealthy customers. And then there are the affluent customers. It's both. We have the both customer segments. Sometimes the most well-off customers stand out for various reasons. When the stock market's up, indeed, or when they need to invest in products that are more attractive than others. And yet, we work a great deal with those customers, especially in the big luxury brands in jewelry, in the most iconic watches.
In this regard, I'd like to mention that at Louis Vuitton, over a few years with La Fabrique du Temps, we managed to produce what is considered by all watch connoisseurs as some of the finest watches in the world that are indeed very successful. We could organize one day, if you're interested, a visit for some analysts who are fond of watches, a site visit to show you it's truly fascinating. That's what we do with other activities. Of course, these watches with complications, these manual watches, are so complicated to manufacture that they're very expensive. That's for the very high-net-worth customers. But also at Vuitton, our stores, we try and attract the kind of entry-level customers, so to speak, if the range doesn't start at zero, because the entry price remains quite high.
But we know that those customers can then move to the higher strata. The younger they start, the more attached they'll become to the house. And both can. Well, when the economic climate in a country is not so good, obviously, it's firstly the affluent customers who disappear a bit. That's a fact. But it doesn't mean that the rich are not progressing either, because there's no trickle down there. I mean, it's a different development. And on the watches, on TAG Heuer, Mr. Bianchi will tell us about the watches. But we're very confident on TAG Heuer in particular, aren't we? And on the watch business, when I see what we've achieved with Vuitton, there's huge potential for the group. But you know TAG Heuer very well. Yes, well, what I can say is that we've just completed LVMH Watch Week in Milan.
We had these Montenapoleone stores in the Louis Vuitton shop and the Tiffany's. Well, you have Tiffany, you have Bulgari. We have the Zenith in Tiffany. Anyway, we meet our retailers. That week was very successful, indeed. In any case, we started the Formula 1 partnership. We have it going for another nine years. We invested in Juper. We took a minority interest last year. We started the Hublot manufacture to extend production of watches through Hublot. We did Signol AG for Bulgari last year. We bought L'Épée. So all this goes to show that we're very confident in the watch business, and we keep investing. There's no question of stopping that. And indeed, we formally denied a rumor that went around regarding we were going to dispose of Zenith. There's never any question of selling Zenith. So what else can I say?
We remain very confident on the watch segment, that segment, well, the timepiece segment at large. You can see with the exports of Swiss watches, it is experiencing challenges. Some of our subcontractors are also experiencing challenges. We find this in some of the Maisons. We remain confident, and we keep investing. Yes, Mr. Number Two.
[Non-English Content]
Good evening. Edouard Aubin from Morgan Stanley. I had a couple of questions for Mrs. Cabanis. Number one, to my knowledge, you don't have a crystal ball. You don't give us any guidance. It's not going to start today. But still, can you give us some color on the sensitivity analysis for margins in leather goods? Assuming you get a 4% margin, do you think the margin is going to go up or down? I mean, you mentioned the currency effect, but there are also tariffs.
There's the cost of materials. So that's my first question on fashion and leather goods. The other question on the cost structure that Mr. Arnault mentioned, some of your competitors, some of your peers are cutting down on their stores. Are you cutting costs on payroll, or are you also working on cutting in the payroll? And then on the corporate income tax, what's your expectation for the coming year?
Well, lots of crystal ball questions there, but I'll try and see if I can answer. On question number one, that is the expected level of profit margin on fashion and leather goods. Well, we are working on costs, of course. Now, in order to stabilize our profits, we need to find renewed growth. And that's what we want to generate. We want to keep costs under control. But what else can we say?
We need some growth, because, of course, without growth, profit margin will be under pressure in organic terms. On the currency effect, as I said, we expect the same effect as last year, but the timetable will be reversed. Regarding the cost structure per se, well, there's no one big rule saying, "We'll cut down on this budget line or that." It's always a case by case. We may have exceptional initiatives. Nonetheless, we still have to manage the rest of the network. So we keep our discipline stringent on the network as a whole, on perfumes and cosmetics. The profit margin was up 8%. There was a remarkable word on POSM, marketing expenses. So there's no clear-cut answer. It depends on where we stand, where we need to work on to improve the effectiveness of our business model. But everybody is applying the same discipline on costs.
But of course, we expect growth to resume, and then we will be in a position to expect better profit margins on the tax rate. Well, it depends on when you ask the question. Last week, three weeks ago, it looks as though 2026 will have a tax rate identical to 2025 because the extra tax will be renewed in 2026. Well, are there any final questions at all? asks Bernard Arnault. I see no further questions. Well, oh, yes. Here you go.
Boris Ivanov. Boris Ivanov. I'm a journalist for Libra Info. To my knowledge, and unless I'm mistaken, you did not mention the effects of tariffs. Well, there's a currency effect, but could we have some details on that? I imagine that higher tariffs will have an effect on your business.
Well, I did mention tariffs in my presentation looking at the gross margin regarding especially wines and spirits, because you had an effect right there. This is only a partial effect because we had pushed stocks inventories at the beginning of the year. So the real effects will be felt in 2026 over the full year. There will also be an effect on fashion and leather goods and watches and jewelry. But of course, the pricing power is not the same as in wines and spirits. So of course, the bottom line will be different. Anyway, thank you for your attention.