Wertheimer Brothers – Is there a single family office?

How did the  Wertheimer Brothers earn their fortune?

They did not earn it, but inherited it from their father, Jacques Guy Wertheimer, who, along with his father Pierre Wertheimer, was a longtime and often contentious business partner of fashion and perfume legend Coco Chanel. With his initial help in expanding her highly successful perfume, Chanel No. 5, into the US market, Wertheimer, Chanel and a third partner set up a joint venture in which he invested his capital and Coco Chanel her brand name in a 70% to 10% split, with 20% belonging to a third business partner. From this original company, Chanel Parfums, he was able to renegotiate with Mrs Chanel, who had survived expropriation by the Nazis during the Second World War, to take over the entire Chanel brand. His grandsons, Gérard and Alain Wertheimer, now each own half of the company, which is worth an estimated €28 billion. In 2018, for the first time in 108 years, Chanel published its financial results, showing a very sustainable and healthy company with $1.6 billion in cash, $9.6 billion in sales and $2.69 billion in profits.

Since then, Chanel has been able to improve its financial results. In 2023, Chanel generated sales of $19.7 billion, while the company’s profits reached $6,407 million in 2023.

How did  Chanel S.A.S. develop?

Chanel is best known for the work of two designers. Its founder and fashion mogul, Gabrielle Coco Chanel, and the recently deceased German designer, Karl Lagerfeld, are the main figures responsible for the outstanding success and longevity of the Chanel brand. Coco Chanel began the story of Chanel in 1909 when she opened her first boutique in Paris selling hats. She later ventured into sportswear for high society women. The product that made her rich in the 1920s and 30s was the Chanel suit, a women’s dress that was both comfortable and elegant. It was a radical innovation at a time when the majority of women’s clothing focused on beauty, but the women who wore it often complained that it was too uncomfortable. The other world-famous product associated with the Chanel brand is perfume No. 5, which was invented in 1920 and is still a best-selling fragrance. Karl Lagerfeld became creative director in 1983, at a time when Chanel was seen as a brand for older women, losing out to younger generations and new customer segments. His dedication to the brand made it timeless and made it more appealing to younger, more affluent generations. Until his death in February this year, he was responsible for Chanel’s creative line and helped transform the luxury fashion house into a billion-dollar holding company.

Do Wertheimer Brothers have a Single Family Office?

They do, and it is called Mousse Partners, and they also own another investment company called Double Mousse. Mousse Partners is a New York-based single family office that is heavily involved in managing and growing the assets of the Wertheimer brothers. Their investment range is broad and well known, despite Chanel’s reputation for secrecy and privacy. The Single Family Office was founded in 1990 by Charles Heilbronn, a long-time Chanel executive, to manage and structure Chanel’s assets. Mousse Partners owns Chanel as its principal business, alongside its other smaller investments. It also invests independently of Chanel’s acquisitions, mainly in the beauty and fashion sectors. According to Forbes, Chanel owns via its investment company Doublemousse 18% of the chain of hairdresser salons called Ulta which is based in the United States and highly profitable.

How does the Wertheimer Family Office invests?

There is no clear investment focus identifiable, although Venture Capital investments make an important part of the asset portfolio of Mousse Partners.  They are invested in an Icelandic Fashion label called 66° North, originally founded to produce apt working wear for Nordic Fisherman, but since becoming a global fashion brand.  According to Yahoo the single-family office also participated in a funding round of the web-shop builder application Storr, which enables people to build and run their webshop from their phones, democratizing the way to participate in e-commerce. A completely different VC investment Mousse partners realised was into the startup Everplans, which enables families to store and make available documents and their will online. The idea is to streamline and facilitate the inheritance process and respect the will of a person after his death. The broad range already visible is complemented by the strategic investment in Counter Brands LLC, an innovative skin care and beauty company based in Santa Monica, California. Mousse Partners is sought to support its international expansion.  A further investment as made into an again completely different field, highlighting the diversity of Mousse Partners and their investment strategy. Lumiere is a start-up Chinese cinema developer and operator and also received strategic funding from Mousse Partners. It is planned to expand its cinema operations throughout China and globally. Also, the digitalisation of the art market is an interesting industry for Mousse Partners, as they invested in Paddle 8, a start-up operating an online auction house for mid-priced art between 1000 and 100.000 dollars. The investment strategy is innovative, risk-averse and distributed among a wide range of industries.

With the help of their family office, both Wertheimer brothers have increased their wealth. Together, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer are worth USD 36.8 billion (Forbes 2024).

This article is part of our detailed report “The single family offices of Europe’s richest families“.

Picture source: Jess Bailey via Unsplash