Like other sectors, the luxury sector is affected by the shortage of raw materials and slow production resumption
French Cartier President Cyrille Vigneron warned that due to the strong economic recovery in some market segments and the slow resumption of production, the luxury goods market is “overheated.”
In an interview published today in the French weekly Dudimanche magazine, Wigneron said that the “very strong and rapid” recovery of luxury goods demand last summer was “surprising” and is currently in a period of “overheating”.
The owner of Cartier specifically emphasized the recovery after the mandatory quarantine period of the pandemic, which was “very strong” in China, at first “soon” in the United States, and then “in almost all countries.”
The businessman admitted that, like other sectors, the luxury sector is mainly affected by the shortage of raw materials and slow production resumption.
For Vigneron, from an environmental and ethical point of view, the question of what is “acceptable and tolerable” will also affect the supply chain.
The person in charge of Cartier explained that 95% of the gold it consumes is recovered from Europe (and will soon reach 99%) because the extraction of this mineral is “very serious.”
Even so, he pointed out that jewellery companies continue to support mining activities with “social conditions certified by an independent agency, such as in Peru”. Similarly, for diamonds, they only cooperate with countries participating in the Kimberley Process.
Cartier is part of the Swiss luxury goods group Richemont Group, and its brands include Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc, IWC and Piaget.