Marianne Romestain, former chief executive officer at Gérard Darel, has been named CEO of French luxury leather brand Lancel. The label has been without an operational head since May 2013 following the departure of Fabrizio Cardinali, who left to lead the fellow Richemont-owned brand Dunhill.

At the time, Lancel was at the centre of cloud of rumours surrounding the potential sale of the company. In October 2013 – still under speculation – Richemont said it was ready to inject cash into the company to secure a sale.

Romestain is no stranger to the Swiss group. The exec joined Cartier in Japan in the nineties as marketing director at the jeweler before moving on to head up communication at Cartier International in France until 2005.

In November 2005, Marianne Romestein joined Fast Retailing as executive vice president of sales and marketing at Comptoir des Cotonniers, before being named COO at the brand in 2007. In June 2011, Romestain moved over to Gérard Darel as CEO, a position in which she remained until August 2013.

“Marianne’s mission at Lancel will be to assure the repositioning of the brand within in the group,” said Richemont in a press release.

For a number of insiders, Lancel is a somewhat the ‘problem child’ of the group. Figures released last October showed an operational loss of 10 million euros for its end-of-year, closed June 2013. Revenue at the company rang in at 135 million euros. Richemont acquired the company for 200 million euros in 1997.


Jean-Paul Leroy (English version by Lauren Walker)