Stanislas de Quercize
48, President and CEO, Van Cleef & Arpels
By Nadia Mustafa
Fall 2005 Style & Design
It's hard to compete with a brand as established as international
luxury-goods company Cartier—especially if you live under the same
roof. Despite catering to the likes of Romy Schneider and Madonna since
its founding in 1894 (Cartier opened 47 years earlier), Paris-based
jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels has hovered in the shadow of its
cash-cow sibling, which provides its parent company, Swiss conglomerate
Richemont, with estimated annual sales of $600 million in the U.S.
alone. But in recent years, Van Cleef has garnered a higher profile by
unveiling an increasingly diverse variety of high-end jewelry as well as
a wider range of accessible creations.
To continue bolstering the retailer's image, Richemont, which has a
habit of promoting executives from within, named none other than
Cartier's Stanislas de Quercize as Van Cleef's new chief shortly after
CEO Isabelle Guichot left in January to run Gucci Group's Sergio Rossi.
De Quercize, a Richemont veteran (he moved to New York City in 2002
after three years as president of Cartier France, before which he was
international director of marketing for Alfred Dunhill and the No. 1 at
Montblanc North America), will take the reins this month.
A contemporary-art buff who learned to respect the influence of time
while harvesting champagne grapes as a teen in his native Reims, France,
De Quercize hails from an aristocratic family whose motto, "Quand même"
(loosely translated: "We will do whatever it takes"), he adopted as his
personal mission statement. On his watch, Cartier's revenues reportedly
rose 12% in the fourth quarter of last year. At Van Cleef, he will steer
the growth of the 43-store fleet, which is focused on expansion in Asia,
the U.S. and Eastern Europe.
"He will take Van Cleef to another level," says Greg Furman, chairman of
the Luxury Marketing Council. "He's not the kind of marketer to say, 'We
have the brand, therefore they will come.' He understands that the
luxury consumer must be courted, surprised and delighted."
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