Hermès
The French luxury goods company makes some of the world's most desirable consumer items. It is a family-run business that has repeatedly solved the succession problem and appears to be a live player.
At one point in May 2025, the French luxury goods company Hermès (pronounced “air-mez”) became the second-most valuable company in Europe with a market capitalization of over $300 billion (RMS.PA).1 With at least 72.6% of the company owned by members of the Hermès family, directly or indirectly, this meant the family’s net worth reached around $220 billion, making it collectively wealthier than everyone in the world but Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, and also wealthier than the family of Bernard Arnault, the head of LVMH and the wealthiest single person in Europe.2 Like its competitors, Hermès produces and sells a wide range of highly-priced bags, clothing, watches, perfumes, and accessories—“Veblen goods” for which demand increases rather than decreases as the price increases, because they raise the owner’s social status. But whereas its main business competitors have become large corporations agglomerating a number of distinct brands, Hermès has continuously been a family-owned and family-run business since 1837, and the family shows no signs of giving up control in the near future.