PINAULTPRINTEMPSREDOUTÉ

This company, founded as a timber trading company in 1963 by François Pinault, was first known as the Pinault Group. In 1992, the company took over the Frenchdepartment storeAu Printemps and the company's name changed to Groupe Pinault Printemps. By 1994, the company acquired La Redouté, the biggest mail-order house in France (and third largest in the world) and was renamed Pinault-Printemps-Redouté. From 2001 until 2004, the company engaged in a highly publicized battle with theGucciGroup, and it eventually succeeded in acquiring control of the company.In 2005, François-Henri Pinault, at age forty-two, took the helm (which is controlled by his family's holding company, Artemis) and renamed the company PPR. The company is headquartered in Paris and includes the following subsidiaries: Gucci (which owns the luxury brandsYves Saint Laurent, Sergio Rossi, Boucheron,Bottega Veneta, Bédat & Co.,Alexander McQueen,Stella McCartney, andBalenciaga), Redcats mail-order retailer (which operates La Redouté, Ellos, Empire, Brylane, Cyrillus, Vertbaudet, Somewhere, Daxon, Ed-mée, Celaia, and La Maison de Valérie), FNAC (book and CD retailer in France, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal), and Conforama (household furnishings retailer). PPR sold Printemps to Italy's La Rinascente department stores in 2006. PPR's chief competitors are luxury goods conglomeratesMoët Hennessey Louis Vuitton(LVMH) andPrada.