Luca de Meo, incoming CEO of French luxury group Kering, delivers a speech during an extraordinary shareholder meeting of Kering at the company's headquarters in Paris, France, September 9, 2025. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson

PARIS - The incoming chief executive of Gucci owner Kering, Luca de Meo, told a shareholder meeting on Tuesday he would bring the struggling luxury group back on track, which will include taking "clear and strong" decisions that won't be easy.

Shareholders approved the appointment of the former Renault boss as CEO to revive the beleaguered group's fortunes, taking over the reins from Francois-Henri Pinault who stays on as chairman.

"We will get the group back to the place it should be," de Meo said in a speech, adding that the first decisions to make the group faster, more integrated and profitable will be implemented before the end of the year.

"We must continue to reduce our debt, reduce our costs. And where necessary, rationalise, reorganise, reposition some of our brands," de Meo said, adding: "These decisions won't always be easy."

Pinault, who spent 20 years at Kering's helm, said the company will also clarify key positions in de Meo's leadership team before 2026.

The role of the company's two deputy CEOs, Francesca Bellettini and Jean-Marc Duplaix, has become the subject of speculation ever since Kering announced it would hire de Meo as its next chief executive from September.

Duplaix sat next to de Meo in the front row during the shareholder meeting, but Bellettini was absent.

The arrival of de Meo, the first outsider to run the company in two decades, marks a bold move for Kering, which has struggled to regain its footing since the departure of star designer Alessandro Michele from its brand Gucci in late 2022.

De Meo takes up the position at a difficult time for the luxury industry, which is facing a prolonged slump, with the Chinese market hobbled by a property crisis while U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war is weighing on U.S. consumer confidence and threatening margins at European high-end brands.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Mimosa Spencer, Makini Brice and Frances Kerry)