中文title: “Gucci Just Posted Its Best Sequential Quarter in Years — and Kering Cut €4.7 Billion in Debt” source: https://internationalleathermaker.com/gucci-revival-helps-kering-return-to-growth/ date: 2026-08-05
Gucci Just Posted Its Best Sequential Quarter in Years — and Kering Cut €4.7 Billion in Debt
For eight quarters, the question hanging over Kering was simple and brutal: can Gucci be fixed? The first half of 2026 does not answer it definitively. But it produces the first set of numbers in a long time that point the right way.
Kering reported first-half 2026 revenue of €7.22 billion, down 3% as reported but up 1% on a comparable basis. The second quarter came in at €3.65 billion, up 1% as reported and 2% comparable — a return to growth, achieved despite a negative currency effect of roughly one percentage point.
Modest numbers. But direction matters more than magnitude when a turnaround is being judged, and the direction finally reversed.
The Debt Story Is the Real Headline
Buried beneath the revenue commentary is the figure that should reassure investors most: net debt fell by €4.7 billion since the end of 2025, to €3.3 billion.
That is not a rounding adjustment. That is a balance sheet being rebuilt. Kering spent the acquisitive years accumulating leverage — real estate, brand stakes, beauty ambitions — and then ran into a luxury slowdown with a debt load calibrated for a boom. Cutting €4.7 billion in roughly six months restores the strategic freedom the group had lost.
The rest of the profitability picture is more mixed. First-half recurring operating income was €921 million, giving a recurring operating margin of 12.8%. Net income attributable to the group was €189 million. For a house that once ran Gucci alone at margins north of 35%, 12.8% at group level is a sobering number. It is also, arguably, the trough.
Fashion & Leather Goods: Flat Is the New Good
The division that matters most to this industry — Kering Fashion & Leather Goods — generated €2.95 billion in Q2 revenue, down 1% reported and flat on a comparable basis. First-half revenue reached €5.8 billion, down 5% reported and 1% comparable.
Flat sounds unremarkable. In context, it represents sequential improvement, with Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Brioni all accelerating versus the first quarter.
Two details in Kering’s commentary deserve emphasis for anyone in the leather supply chain. Bottega Veneta’s performance was supported by leather goods, and leather goods also remained a source of strength at Balenciaga. In a group where ready-to-wear and footwear have swung wildly, leather goods keep functioning as the ballast.
That pattern is now visible across the entire luxury sector. When consumers pull back, they pull back from fashion first and leather goods last. Handbags remain the most defensible category in the industry — not because they are cheap, but because they carry the clearest perception of durable value. Tanneries and component suppliers serving the leather goods channel have consistently reported better conditions than those serving footwear, and Kering’s split confirms it again.
Gucci: Seven Points of Improvement in One Quarter
Gucci posted €1.41 billion in Q2 revenue, down 3% reported and 2% comparable. Comparable retail sales declined 2% — but that represents a seven-percentage-point improvement from the first quarter, and the brand’s strongest sequential acceleration in several quarters.
The drivers cited are product and event rather than discounting: new collections gaining traction, the launch of the Borsetto and Paparazzo lines, and the Gucci Core show in New York rebuilding momentum. North America remained the key growth driver, with Western Europe and Asia-Pacific showing early recovery signs. Wholesale and other revenues rose 5% comparable.
First-half Gucci revenue was €2.76 billion, down 9% reported and 5% comparable, with recurring operating income of €468 million and a recurring operating margin of 17%, up one percentage point year-on-year.
Margin expansion during a revenue decline is the single most encouraging data point in the release. It means the recovery is not being bought with markdowns. Anyone who has watched luxury turnarounds knows the failure mode: sales stabilise, margin collapses, and the brand emerges cheaper in every sense. Gucci is not doing that.
Building for the Next Decade, Not the Next Quarter
Kering also used the half to make structural moves. It launched the Kering Accademia per le Eccellenze to strengthen luxury craftsmanship training, unveiled the ReconKering transformation plan, and announced a strategic partnership with ICCF including a minority investment supporting the international expansion of ICICLE.
Leadership changed too: Gianfranco D’Attis was appointed CEO of Alexander McQueen and Romain Spitzer CEO of Bottega Veneta. And Gucci and L’Oréal signed a new 50-year exclusive beauty licence taking effect in mid-2027 — an extraordinarily long commitment that speaks to confidence in the brand’s durability well beyond the current cycle.
The craftsmanship academy deserves particular attention from this industry. Europe’s luxury groups have finally accepted that the binding constraint on growth is not demand but skilled hands. Kering training its own artisans is the same logic that drove Chanel into Tuscany and LVMH into workshop acquisitions.
The Honest Verdict
One quarter of 2% comparable growth does not constitute a recovery. Gucci is still shrinking. Group margins are still compressed. And the macro environment — tariffs, currency, uneven Chinese demand — has not become friendlier.
But a business that cuts €4.7 billion of debt, expands Gucci’s margin during a sales decline, and sees three brands accelerate simultaneously is no longer in freefall. For suppliers, the practical read is this: leather goods orders from the Kering houses should stabilise before ready-to-wear does, and Bottega Veneta in particular looks like the volume to watch.
Source: International Leather Maker
