Brand value depends on quality and image. For luxury goods companies, the link between image and shareholder value is unusually tight. Negative headlines hit fast and hard.
Brand Values: Unravelling Luxury Goods Risks
What’s behind a name?
If brand value is image, reputation, and a track record of quality, the higher the price of the product, the more important that image is for pricing and profit. And the more susceptible to negative news which might affect that image.
Supply chain risk management remains particularly complex and opaque in sectors such as luxury brands.
Supply chain management is a core determinant of long-term resilience. It shapes operational risk, cost structures and exposure to reputational and legal challenges. Globalisation brought efficiency but, as Covid-19 demonstrated, globalisation brought systemic fragility and a frightening level of opaqueness.
Imagine the difficulty of a luxury goods manufacturer in documenting its supply chain. Beyond the first-level supplier, they have little or no visibility.
What are luxury goods companies doing about this?
We are engaging with several companies in the luxury goods industry to better understand how they are strengthening their supply chain due diligence. Ben Chekroun, Lead ESG Analyst – Engagement, answers our questions.
What does this mean for investors in luxury goods companies?
- Luxury goods rely on image. For many, that image includes sustainability. Just look at some of the ‘sustainability’ pages on their websites.
- Yet paradoxically because of that immaculate image, consumers take ethical sourcing for granted, amplifying the brand value damage when a human rights violation is arises and is made public.
- With EU regulations coming into force in stages, traceability is possibly an even greater headache. Reputational risk through news headlines can mean swift and sharp shocks to brand and shareholder value.
white paper
There’s more on analysing this lurking risk in our new white paper on Luxury Goods supply chains
Human Rights in the Food Supply Chain
Other industries also have complex and opaque supply chains. We have also shared out Find a framework for analysing supply chains in the food industry
-
Research Paper, Equities, Oncology, ESG, SRI, Servaas MichielssensWorld Cancer Day : Innovation, Hope, and the Future of Oncology
Precision oncology is entering a new era—one defined by earlier detection, personalised treatment, and the growing potential for long-term remission or cure. -
ESG, SRI, CorporateCandriam achieves top scores across all UN PRI modules in 2025 assessment
Candriam has once again been awarded five stars across all modules in the 2025 UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Assessment, confirming its leadership and long-standing commitment to responsible investing. -
Research Paper, ESG, SRI, Marie Niemczyk, Benjamin Manent-ManentThe Forest We Ate: How Agriculture Consumes Biodiversity
The loss of biodiversity has financial and investment implications. While not-for-profits and investors such as ourselves are straining to actually quantify our risks, the qualitative indicators are mounting. -
Research Paper, Alix Chosson, Elouan Heurard, ESG, SRI, BiodiversityCan We Assess Companies’ Ecological Debt? And How?
While, according to the World Economic Forum, half of the global GDP is dependent on nature, biodiversity is experiencing an extinction that challenges the resilience of our economies. Deterioration of air, water and soil quality, decline in ecosystem services such as pollination: the physical impacts of this loss of biodiversity are already putting our economies under pressure. -
Alix Chosson, Elouan Heurard, Biodiversity, ESG, SRI2030, INVESTING TOMORROW: Meeting urgent environmental and social challenges
Launched in autumn 2024, the Think Tank "2030, Investir Demain" was created at the initiative of L'Info Durable (ID) and L'Agefi media, with the ambition of uniting financial players around the major challenges of sustainable finance. -
Healthcare, ESG, SRIWhy healthcare, why now?
On Tuesday, September 30, the pharmaceutical industry issued its first formal response to President Trump’s recent letter on drug pricing, announcing a deal between Pfizer and the US administration. -
ESG, SRI, Oncology, HealthcareFrom uncertainty to growth: why invest in healthcare?
As we enter the month of October, investors are faced with an obvious question: is the time right for new investments in the oncology sector? Pasquale Sansone, Senior Biotechnology Analyst, shares his analysis and convictions. -
Ken Van Weyenberg, Oncology, ESG, SRI, HealthcareWhy oncology remains a key investment opportunity
The investment landscape is marked by persistent macroeconomic uncertainties, uneven growth, and heightened geopolitical risks. Despite attractive earnings growth, healthcare has also been under pressure due to regulatory restructuring, drug pricing debates, budget constraints, and tariff concerns.