Surcharge: Michel-Édouard Leclerc denounces a “blackmail” by Bernard Arnault, the boss of LVMH answers him

Tackles between large bosses. In full widen of bosses on the surcharge of large companies wanted by the government, Michel-Édouard Leclerc, the president of the strategic committee of the E.Leclerc centers, criticized this Friday the threat of leaving the country issued according to him by Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH (owner of the group Les Échos-le Parisien)and assured that no boss of E.Leclerc stores would make “blackmail like that”. An attack which quickly earned an answer from the person concerned, who assured that he had “never said” wanting to relocate his group.

“It is not necessarily positively impacting to have one of the richest men in France who says: If it doesn’t, I leave the country “Said Michel-Édouard Leclerc on LCI. Asked to find out if he was talking about Bernard Arnault well, Michel-Édouard Leclerc responded in the affirmative.

“I wanted to alert”

On X, the CEO of LVMH quickly reacted. “I never heard never said that we were going to relocate the LVMH group,” he said. “It is precisely because I like France and that I hope that our country continues to remain competitive that I wanted to alert to measures that seem to me in all points counterproductive,” he continues.

Tuesday, on the sidelines of the presentation of the annual results of LVMH, Bernard Arnault had denounced the surcharge envisaged by the government, supposed to aim for large companies and bring 8 billion euros to the State, as being a “tax of the made in France “Which” pushes to relocation “.

“What I have said is that the tax measures envisaged are an incentive to relocate, since they tax in France but not the French companies relocated,” he insists on X, recalling that LVMH Employs nearly 200,000 people directly and indirectly in France, being in doing so and according to him “the first private recruiter in France”.

“As for Mr. Leclerc, since he seems to want to defend French SMEs, I advise him to sell more French products in his supermarkets and stop pressing French suppliers, at the risk of putting them in difficulty, seeking to obtain From them ever lower prices, ”continues Bernard Arnault.

“That he shows in this way his patriotism, rather than criticizing a group that promotes France in the world with its craftsmen and suppliers, helping them to develop in our country,” says the billionaire, who directs The world number one of luxury.

Leclerc signs spared by surcharge

The brands organized in cooperatives such as E.Leclerc, bringing together several hundred independent companies (stores or agrifood producers), should not overall be affected by the surcharge, each entity taken separately not reaching the turnover threshold.

On LCI, Michel Leclerc said “thinking” that the brand, like all the entities organized in cooperatives or business mutuals, “does not pay dividend at national level” and is “not concerned by this measure”. An advantage that crinks the teeth of other integrated tax stores.

“In terms of contribution to French taxation, the self-employed contribute more than the integrated groups,” replied Michel-Édouard Leclerc, “because in the daily life we ​​cannot compensate for the potential benefits by the losses of our subsidiaries” which would be deficit.