Richemont-owned German luxury pen maker Montblanc has appointed Jean-Charles Hita as one of its company general managers, overseeing its leather goods division.
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For his new role at Montblanc, Hita will be working in Hamburg, Germany, and will report to Montblanc CEO, Jean-Christophe Baretzki.
A luxury industry veteran of more than 20 years, Hita started his high-end fashion career as Parisian house Céline, working as its production and merchandising director in 1996.
From 2000 to 2007, Hita was in charge of the Italian house Bulgari and its accessories division, before moving to Newel Rubbermaid (owner of Parker and Waterman) and Burberry’s Hong Kong division, where he worked as senior vice-president strategy for Asia-Pacific. Most recently, Hita worked for Giorgio Armani in Milan as accessories division director from 2016.
The Frenchmen is a graduate of the ESSEC business school in Paris.
Founded in Germany in 1906, Montblanc produces luxury pens, watches, jewellery, fragrances, leather goods and eyewear.
UK luxury brand Dunhill acquired the German firm in 1977, before moving over form part of the Swiss group Richemont, which is owned by the South African South African Rupert family. Its sister companies include luxury brands Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chloé, and Baume and Mercier
Most recently, Richemont recruited Jérôme Lambert as CEO in September 2018.
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Switzerland’s Richemont, the world’s second biggest luxury goods group, posted a 5 percent rise in sales at constant currencies in the October-December period 2018, excluding recently acquired online distributors Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP) and Watchfinder, a second-hand platform.