LVMH Tells Tiffany Staff to Return to Office Starting March 1
February 05 2021 - 9:52AM
Dow Jones News
By Suzanne Kapner
A month after acquiring Tiffany & Co., LVMH Moët Hennessy
Louis Vuitton SE is bringing employees back to the office.
The French luxury goods giant told employees at the U.S. jeweler
to return to the office two days a week beginning March 1,
according to people familiar with the situation. "It's critical at
this time of change that we adopt a hybrid approach to
onsite-remote working," LVMH told employees in a memo this
week.
Tiffany will join a small list of large New York companies that
have required employees to return to the office, including JPMorgan
Chase & Co. In Houston, Shell Oil Co. and some other energy
companies brought back workers as early as May, only to send them
home again amid coronavirus outbreaks.
A spokeswoman for Tiffany had no immediate comment.
Some companies that had hoped to bring employees back this
spring are moving that target to late summer and beyond as Covid-19
case counts remain elevated. About 14% of New York City workers
have returned, according to data from Kastle Systems, a security
firm that has been tracking access-card swipes at offices.
The 7-day average of the percent of New York City Covid-19 tests
that come back positive is 5%, according to state data, down from a
recent high of 6.4% in early January. The World Health Organization
recommends that positivity rates stay below 5% for at least two
weeks before easing shutdown restrictions.
LVMH's acquisition of Tiffany closed on Jan. 7, after a
tumultuous few months in which it tried to back out of the deal. It
accused Tiffany executives of mismanaging the company during the
pandemic and fought to renegotiate the price, prompting both
companies to sue each other. In the end, LVMH bought Tiffany for
$15.8 billion, a 2.6% discount from the original price.
Now, LVMH, led by CEO Bernard Arnault, must revive Tiffany at a
time when it has been deprived of crucial tourist spending and the
broader industry is still reeling from the damage wrought by the
pandemic. LVMH hopes that having people in the office will speed up
the integration, one of the people familiar with the situation
said.
In early January, LVMH installed new leadership at Tiffany. LVMH
executive Anthony Ledru returned to Tiffany, where he previously
oversaw North American operations, as chief executive. Mr.
Arnault's son Alexandre Arnault was named executive vice president
of product and communications.
The back-to-work edict is in keeping with LVMH's policies for
its other companies, which include Louis Vuitton and Dior, and its
staff in France. The two-day a week hybrid schedule has been common
in France since the government reopened offices after a
mid-December lockdown.
Some workers are eager to return to work after nearly a year of
at-home confinement, according to one of the people familiar with
the situation. But others are struggling with child-care issues and
some don't feel comfortable taking public transportation until
vaccines are more widely available, this person said. LVMH is
taking those considerations and the safety of staff into account as
it rolls out the hybrid policy, according to the memo.
Tiffany had more than 14,000 employees as of December, including
staff at its retail stores around the world. As of January 2020,
about 5,000 of its employees were in the U.S.
--Chip Cutter contributed to this article.
Write to Suzanne Kapner at Suzanne.Kapner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2021 09:37 ET (14:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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