Kering is pronounced “caring,” according to François-Henri Pinault, the chairman and chief executive of the family-controlled company. “Ker” is a Breton word meaning “home,” making the new name also “a proud reminder of our origins in the Brittany region of France,” Mr. Pinault said in a statement.
The rebranding comes as the house is completing its transformation into a “pure” apparel and accessories group, shedding some of the broader collection of businesses on which it once depended. Mr. Pinault said in February that PPR planned a public stock offering this year of its Fnac entertainment retailing chain, which, like Virgin Megastores and HMV, has struggled as much of its core business has moved online.
The company also plans to divest itself of the Redcats online clothing and furniture business. That will allow it to focus exclusively on its luxury and sports-lifestyle brands, which also include Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta.
The new name “expresses the group’s new identity and our corporate culture,” said Mr. Pinault, 50, the son of PPR’s founder, François Pinault, 76. A marketing campaign, to be carried out largely though print advertisements and social media, is planned to help get the word out before the name change takes effect in June.
PPR reported revenue of 9.7 billion euros, or $12.5 billion, for last year.
Manfredi Ricca, the managing director at Interbrand in Milan, said the name change reflected an awareness that companies needed “a strong angle on what they stand for,” both for consumers and for employees, to demonstrate their “overarching vision” and values.
“I think it’s a case where the name needs to tell the story of the business,” Mr. Ricca said of PPR. “The former name contained things that are no longer relevant to the group.”
Kering will actually be the company’s fifth name.
It began in 1963 as a timber-trading business run by François Pinault, who called it simply Pinault. After expanding into distribution, the company took control of the venerable Printemps department store in 1992 and changed its name to Pinault-Printemps. With the acquisition of La Redoute, a mail-order shopping business, it changed its name to Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, before eventually opting for the simpler PPR.
The company achieved global prominence in 2001, when the elder Mr. Pinault won a highly public and drawn-out battle with Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, for control of the Gucci Group.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/business/global/ppr-to-show-breton-roots-with-rebranding-as-kering.html?partner=rss&emc=rss