Parisian luggage maker for the rich seduces luxury giants

None of them would want to pass up a chance to buy 200-yr-old Goyard

Only the really wealthy know Goyard. Unlike Gucci or Louis Vuitton, the more than 200-year-old Parisian maker of luxury luggage and bags -with one of its 19th-century-style trunks going for euro 52,380 ($59,315) - maintains a studied silence. It doesn't advertise in glossy magazines, and is among the last of its kind not swallowed up by a larger peer. So far, that is.

Kering Chief Executive Officer Francois-Henri Pinault wouldn't be averse to adding it to his company's stable of brands, a person familiar with the matter said. While neither Kering nor its larger rival LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton will officially comment on whether they're interested in Goyard, industry observers say it's unlikely they would pass up a chance to consider buying it.

"In the event that Goyard is for sale, LVMH and Kering will surely take a look," said Mario Ortelli, London-based head of luxury at Sanford C Bernstein. "The Goyard brand would be compatible with Kering's portfolio, for example, or LVMH could seek to increase its market share in leather goods rather than let another company build up a competitor to its brands like Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Celine."

Businessman Jean-Michel Signoles, who bought Goyard in 1998 from its founding family, won't say if he wants to sell the company he turned around by expanding sales to the new, burgeoning wave of the world's wealthy.

Luggage maker of aristocrats in the 19th and 20th centuries, Goyard counted the Maharaja of Kapurthala, the Rockefellers, the Romanovs, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Karl Lagerfeld among its customers, it says on its website. The company, which boasts a "complete disregard for marketing or mass-production", also says it doesn't engage "in any form of e-commerce". It declined to respond to Bloomberg's questions.

A visit to Goyard's flagship Paris store on rue Saint-Honore, across Louis Vuitton and Moynard outlets, is a journey into the past, with trunks hearkening back to a bygone era. The shop also features an array of cases and duffle bags ranging from less than euro 3,000 to close to euro 6,000, as well as tote bags from euro 1,560 and a red crocodile-skin number for euro 37,000. Beach bags, towels, pouches, wallets, hangers, belts, dog collars, slippers, umbrellas, pens and pen cases complete the collection.

"Goyard has evolved from a very functional brand, and while it remains very classic, it's technically and aesthetically appealing to people, with its hand-painted initials, seals and images," said Dana Telsey, founder of Telsey Advisory Group in New York.

The company traces its history back to 1792 when it was founded in Paris by Pierre-Francois Martin as a maker of cases and boxes to transport fragile objects. Childless, Martin passed his company on to one of his workers, Louis-Henri Morel, who hired 17-year-old Francois Goyard in 1845. Goyard took over the company after Morel's death.

In 1885, the business was taken over by Francois' son Edmond. The business was then handed down from father to son until it was bought by Signoles, who brought his own sons Alex and Remi on board.

For all its claims to "timeless elegance, craftsmanship and exclusivity", Goyard was accumulating losses when it was taken over by Signoles, the founder of children's clothes brand Chipie. "The fact that it's no longer family-owned, that it's gained a better-known name, expanded its leather goods assortment and opened new stores, like the one on Madison Avenue in New York, that already says that the brand is aiming for greater reach," said Telsey.

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