LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault warned Thursday of “world catastrophe” if the conflict in the Middle East is not resolved.
His comments came after the Iran war weighed on demand in the first three months of the year, halving the luxury giant’s sales growth.
“The world is now in a pretty serious crisis in the Middle East,” the longtime CEO told shareholders at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Paris.
“Either it’ll be a world catastrophe with very serious and very negative economic impact – in which case, who can say how 2026 will unfold – or it will be resolved more rapidly in some shape or form that we all hope for, even if it doesn’t seem to be easy, in which case, business will recover and resume their normal course,” he said, according to a translation by LVMH.
Organic sales at the world’s largest luxury company grew 1% in the first quarter. The Middle East conflict had a 1% negative impact on organic growth, LVMH said last week, effectively cutting quarterly growth in half.
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