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Cape Town – Richemont’s [JSE:CFR] head of watchmaking, marketing and digital resigned with immediate effect, Johann Rupert’s luxury goods group announced on Friday.
“Richemont regrets to announce the resignation with immediate effect of Mr Georges Kern,” the group, which sells watches like Cartier and Montblanc, said in a statement.
“He has stepped down from the senior executive committee and the group management committee and will no longer be standing for election to the board of directors of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA at the forthcoming annual general meeting of shareholders.”
Rupert said: “Georges has been offered an interesting opportunity to become an entrepreneur. He has had a very successful career at IWC Schaffhausen and we wish him well.”
Richemont's watchmaking, marketing and digital activities will report to the senior executive committee, it said.
The sudden resignation comes after Richemont began its biggest management overhaul in years in November, when it named Kern to his position and eliminated the company-wide chief executive officer position.
Kern previously ran the company’s IWC Schaffhausen brand for more than a decade.
For its financial year ended 31 March 2017, Richemont reported sales of €10.647bn. Operating profit for the year amounted to €1.764bn and net profit for the year amounted to €1.210bn.
* With additional reporting from Bloomberg.
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