CHANEL

CHANEL SA is one of the few major French luxury houses that has never been publicly listed and consistently refuses the suggestion when asked by analysts, journalists, or prospective investors. The Wertheimer family has controlled CHANEL since Théophile Wertheimer entered a licensing agreement with Gabrielle Bonheur Coco Chanel in 1924, and his grandsons Alain and Gérard Wertheimer now own the company in its entirety. In 2021, Leena Nair was appointed Global CEO, the first outsider and the first woman to lead the company. Frédéric Grangié serves as President, CHANEL Fashion.

Gabrielle Coco Chanel opened her first hat shop on Rue Cambon in Paris in 1910, followed by boutiques in Deauville and Biarritz, before establishing the couture house that would produce the cardigan jacket, the little black dress, the two-tone shoe, and the No. 5 fragrance (launched 1921, still the world’s best-selling perfume). CHANEL reported revenues of $19.69 billion in 2023 (the most recently published annual figure), up 16% year-over-year, positioning it among the three largest luxury houses by revenue globally alongside Louis Vuitton and Hermès. Operating profit reached $6.4 billion in 2023, an operating margin above 30%. Karl Lagerfeld’s 36-year tenure as Creative Director ended with his death in February 2019. Virginie Viard, who had served as Lagerfeld’s studio director for decades, succeeded him before departing in June 2024. Matthieu Blazy, formerly Creative Director at Bottega Veneta, was appointed Creative Director of CHANEL in February 2025.

Across the Malls.com network, CHANEL is tracked at Class A++ positions including Bal Harbour Shops, South Coast Plaza, Wynn Plaza, The Shops at Crystals, Ala Moana Center, NorthPark Center, Mall at Green Hills Nashville, Tysons Galleria, Miami Design District, Westfield Century City, Worth Avenue Palm Beach, Americana Manhasset, Cherry Creek Mall, CityCenterDC, The Mall at Short Hills, Fashion Valley, and The Galleria Houston in the US. International positions include The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, CAP 3000 in Nice, 1 Utama in Petaling Jaya, and tracked positions in Hong Kong, Germany, Thailand, Israel, Greece, and the United Kingdom.

For mall operators, CHANEL occupies the same apex-luxury tier as Hermès and Louis Vuitton, functioning less as a commercial tenant and more as an institutional co-anchor that defines the caliber of a luxury wing. The brand’s presence is a prerequisite for any shopping center that aspires to host the full European luxury spectrum, and its absence from a luxury cluster typically indicates that the center has not reached the minimum threshold of fashion-house density, real estate quality, or shopper demographic profile that CHANEL’s strict site selection requires. Store formats range from 1,500-square-foot boutiques in tightly anchored luxury wings to 8,000-to-15,000-square-foot maison destinations at the country’s primary luxury mall positions.