SMCP's Daniel Lalonde to lead Design Holding

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Aug 3, 2021

Following news on Monday that Daniel Lalonde is moving on from his role as CEO of SMCP, Design Holding has announced his appointment as its new chief executive with effect from October.

As well as SMCP, he has previously held senior leadership roles at Ralph Lauren, LVMH and Nespresso. Gabriele Del Torchio will continue as non-executive chairman of Design Holding.

The company he’s joining is a leader in the high-end design market, bringing together B&B Italia, Flos, Louis Poulsen, and Arclinea as well as the US e-commerce platform YDesign.

While it’s not a fashion company, it does have strong fashion links. For instance, it recently linked with Fendi for a joint venture called Fashion Furniture Design (FF Design) to develop the FENDI Casa business. The JV sees Design Holding being majority shareholder. It’s now developing new Fendi Casa collections that will be released in January and at the 2022 Salone del Mobile.

The company said it has appointed Lalonde to lead it into its next stage of growth, including the continued international expansion of the business, development of its multi-channel proposition and its shift toward an increasingly Direct-To-Consumer distribution strategy.

It said Lalonde “brings with him deep knowledge and experience of the high-end consumer space with a track record of establishing brands as global leaders”.

Apart from SMCP, that includes at LVMH “transforming Tag Heuer into a leading watch brand in North America [and] helping grow Nespresso from a startup company into a successful global brand”.