Luxury Market: Top 25 Families: Chanel And Hermes

On August 10, the 25 richest families in the world in 2019 were released by Bloomberg. These families control more than $1.4 trillion in global wealth, up about 24% from the same period last year.

The Walton family, the founding family of Wal Mart Inc., the U.S. retail giant, again topped the list with $190.5 billion in wealth. The wealth of the Waltons is growing at a rate of $70000 per minute, four million dollars an hour and $100m a day, according to the data.

With $126.5 billion and $124.5 billion respectively, the family owners of Mars, maker of Dove chocolate and M & M beans, ranked second and third on the list with wealth of $126.5 billion and $124.5 billion, respectively.

It is worth noting that the Wertheimer family and Dumas family, which are in charge of Chanel and herm è s, rose to fifth and sixth places respectively with wealth of US $57.6 billion and US $53.1 billion, respectively. At present, the Wertheimer and Dumas families are also the richest in the world to start with a fashion business.

According to financial data previously disclosed by Chanel in fiscal year 2018, net sales increased by 13% year-on-year to US $11.12 billion, of which sales in Asia Pacific region increased by 19.9% year-on-year. Chanel is now jointly owned by Alain Wertheimer and Gerard Wertheimer brothers, each holding half of Chanel's shares. (see "luxuriant records": Chanel disclosed the latest data: sales increased by 13% in 2018, breaking through 10 billion euro, reiterating that it would not seek to sell)

Hermes' latest quarterly report released last month showed that sales in the second quarter rose 14.7% year-on-year to 1.674 billion euros, thanks to the excellent performance of the Asia Pacific region, especially the Chinese market, and the rapid growth of the clothing and accessories business. In fiscal year 2018, Hermes sales increased by 7.5% year-on-year to 5.966 billion euros. Hermes is now steered by Axel Dumas (Group Chairman) and Pierre Alexis Dumas (Art Director) of the Dumas family. (for details, please refer to "luxuriant records": Hermes maintains the growth momentum in the latest quarterly report, will increase the Chinese market, and plans to expand one city every year in the future)

Rebecca Gooch, head of research at Campden wealth, an investment firm, says family businesses face challenges to ensure long-term continuity of wealth. Many family run enterprises will go from prosperity to decline because of insufficient diversification of investment portfolio and handover of family management.

　　 The list of the world's richest families in 2019 is as follows:

Walmart, the Walton family, 190.5 billion US dollars

Mars (MARS) $126bn

Koch industries - Koch family, US $124.5 billion

Saudi royal family, 100 billion dollars

Chanel, the Wertheimer family, US $57.6 billion

Herm è s - Dumas family, US $53.1 billion

Anheuser Busch InBev - Van Damme, de spoelberch, de mevius family, US $52.9 billion

Boehringer Ingelheim, Boehringer, von Baumbach family, US $51.9 billion

Reliance Industries - Ambani family, US $50.4 billion

Cargill - Cargill, Macmillan family, US $42.9 billion

Thomson Reuters - Thomson family, US $39.1 billion

Sun Hung Kai real estate, Lee Siu Kee family, US $38 billion

Charoen Pokphand Group, chearavanont family, US $37.9 billion

Fidelity family $37.4 billion

Cox enterprises (COX) - Cox family, 36.9 billion US dollars

$35 billion BMW Group

Hyatt Hotels, Pritzker family, US $33.7 billion

Auchan - mulliez family, US $33 billion

SC Johnson - Johnson family, US $33 billion

Albrecht family

Tetra Laval, the Rausing family, US $32.5 billion

Central Asia Bank

EST é e Lauder cos. - Lauder family, US $32.3 billion

Roche - Hoffmann, OERI family, US $31.3 billion

Ferrero - the Ferrero family, 29.8 billion dollars