Luxottica

2014 was a lively year for family businesses, from Abigail Johnson’s succession at Fidelity, to the Market Basket ownership struggle and of course Korean Air’s infamous ‘nut rage’ incident. Here we take a look at some of the issues we think will remain top-of-mind for 2015 and the family businesses to watch.

1: Shareholder revolts

A luxury fashion expert says Luxottica’s founder most likely had his business’s future at heart when ousting the sunglass empire’s non-family chief executive last week, despite media speculation that the exit was personal.

The Italian eyewear firm, which has annual revenues of €7.3 billion and includes brands such as Oakley and Ray-Ban, was brought to prominence during Andrew Guerra’s decade-long tenure. 

LVMH and Kering’s luxury brands perform strongly, sunglasses empire Luxottica breaks €2 billion revenue for the second quarter, and Ford sees strong sales in North America and Asia-Pacific/Africa.

LVMH

Bernard Arnault’s LVMH has announced half year revenues of €13.7 billion, with organic revenue growth up 8% compared to the same period last year.

The group said it continues to experience strong momentum in Asia and the US, and continued to grow in Europe despite economic uncertainty.

At a time when the eurozone crisis shows no sign of abating, family businesses such as America Movil, Prada and LVMH are giving mixed signals about their expansion plans.

According to Carlos Slim Domit, co-chairman of Mexican telecommunications group America Movil, now is a "good moment" to invest in Europe because of the continent's ongoing debt crisis.