LVMH to Invest in Accor's Orient Express Brand

13.06.2024 - 17:07 / skift.com / Agatha Christie / Louis Vuitton / Sean Oneill / Bernard Arnault

LVMH and Accor said Thursday they had signed a deal to speed up the revival of the Orient Express brand.

The luxury titan’s move came after LVMH separately doused rumors it would plan to open a Louis Vuitton-branded hotel in Paris, suggesting the group isn’t trying to compete head-on with established hotel groups.

LVMH said it would make an unspecified strategic investment in the Orient Express brand, the operating company for hotels, trains, and sailing ships.

The move is important because it could end brand confusion for consumers. LVMH separately manages the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express luxury train service through its subsidiary, Belmond.

For instance, customers riding on Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express luxury trains, run by Belmond, may want to book stays at Orient Express Hotels run by Accor, assuming the brand was unified. But Belmond wouldn’t be able to help them.

The Orient Express joint venture includes trains and hotels. But will also own ships, the first of which is currently under construction in France, with the partners seeking a third collaborator.

Orient Express began as a brand with its first luxury train trip in 1883. It later became more glamorous after Agatha Christie wrote the detective fiction, . Accor bought the brand in 2022, but has been seeking capital to help it adapt the brand’s standards to a modern era. It plans to christen the first Orient Express sailing ship by 2026.

LVMH’s plans for the travel sector have been much buzzed about in the media in recent months after rumors floated, especially in the Parisian press, that it would open a Louis Vuitton branded hotel.

The luxury retail titan applied for a permit to run a store and “a hotel” in the largest building on Paris’ Champs-Élysées. In September, city regulators approved LVMH’s request for commercial development on a city block, allowing retail, hotel accommodation, a new basement-level offering, and an interior courtyard.

LVMH hasn’t said much other than that it has “a new project” representing “a new historic chapter.” The group didn’t respond to Skift’s requests for comment.

LVMH Group CEO Bernard Arnault seemed to try to tamp down speculation during the group’s latest earnings call.

“We’ll see with the new Vuitton store that will be opening on the Champs-Élysées,” Arnault said. “There are still a few things that need to be finalized about what we’re going to put in there because I read everywhere that there’ll be a hotel. I’m not personally convinced, fully convinced of that. That’s another matter. There are a great many hotels already in Paris. Cheval Blanc [also owned by LVMH] is the finest. Anyway, we won’t go into that.”

Since winter, people visiting the block with street numbers 103 to 111 on the