Chanel needs new blood. The company's 2024 annual results – which closed at the end of December and were released on Tuesday, May 10 – made that clear. The haute couture house, founded in 1910, saw its revenue tumble by 4.3% to €17.9 billion.

"Following a period of exponential growth, in 2024 we saw challenging macroeconomic conditions," Chanel CEO Leena Nair told Le Monde. Sales had soared by 16% in 2023, following a 17% rise in 2022. "Revenues nearly doubled over the previous three years," Nair added.

Chanel suffered a sharper setback than the fashion and leather goods brands of LVMH, whose average sales declined by 1% in 2024. The results were also a far cry from those of Hermès, which achieved a 15% increase in 2024, reaching €15.1 billion in sales.

The world's second-largest luxury brand after Louis Vuitton – whose sales are estimated at nearly €24 billion in 2024 – Chanel has been hit by a slowdown in the two main engines of the global luxury market: China, where consumer spending has faltered since the start of 2024, and the United States. Chanel's sales fell by 7.1% in the Asia-Pacific region and by 4.2% in the Americas, while they rose by 0.6% in Europe.

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