Tipping the scales

13 January 2017 By Liam Proud Follow @liamwardproud

The animal-rights group has acquired an undisclosed stake in the French luxury firm. It will keep LVMH on its toes. Yet a likely rebound in bag margins this year means that the usual goal of the activist – disposals of offending businesses – is firmly off the agenda.

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Animal rights group PETA said on Jan. 13 that PETA U.S. had become a shareholder in luxury group LVMH on the Euronext Paris exchange, with the aim of putting “pressure on the company to stop selling exotic-skins merchandise.”

PETA released a video in December of Vietnamese crocodile farms, showing the reptiles confined in small pits and sometimes cut open while alive. It said that two of the farms investigated supplied crocodile skins to a tannery owned by LVMH.

After the release of the video, LVMH Director of Environment Sylvie Benard said its tannery had not bought crocodile skins from Vietnamese farms since 2014: “We have no knowledge of a partner that would practice the method you referred to … any cruel method involving the suffering of the animal is in clear contradiction with our principles and rules.”

LVMH shares closed up 1.3 percent at 188.95 euros.

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