Chaumet Takes Full Control of B.M.C., Two Years Ahead of Schedule, as Jewelry Houses Race to Own Their Workshops

In Valenza, the unassuming Piedmontese town that quietly supplies much of the world's fine jewelry, a deal has closed years before anyone expected it to. Chaumet, the renowned jewellery and watchmaking house on Place Vendôme, under LVMH's Bernard Arnault, has completed its acquisition of 100 percent of B.M.C. S.p.A., the Italian jewelry manufacturer it had partly owned since 2020. The transaction was originally slated for 2028. It happened in 2026 instead.

According to individuals close to the LVMH group, Chaumet moved up the acquisition of the full company by two years. The house's relationship with B.M.C. is not a new one. Chaumet, part of the incredible brand story of the LVMH group since 1999, has collaborated with the Valenza based manufacturer for more than a decade, and six years ago acquired an initial stake in the company, located in Piedmont's Italian "gold district."

Founded in 2001 by Carlo Massavelli and Maurizio Bozza, B.M.C. S.p.A. employs approximately 330 people across two production facilities, with its headquarters in Valenza and a second factory in Sesto Calende, northwest of Milan. The company has built its reputation quietly, on the workbench rather than the runway. It has established itself as one of the leading suppliers to international high-end jewelry brands, in a region long celebrated for producing some of the top luxury jewelry brands in Italy. In 2025 the company generated revenue of 65.11 million euros, up from 61.1 million euros in 2024, growth of approximately 6.6 percent. Its books carry weight too. The Valenza based company's inventory, consisting mainly of precious metals, is valued at nearly 40 million euros.

The timing is not incidental. Small Italian manufacturers are currently bearing the brunt of market volatility and facing intense pressure on margins, which makes them more flexible in negotiations and creates a window of opportunity for acquirers, echoing earlier cycles in which crisis conditions triggered a wave of luxury mergers and acquisitions. For a maison like Chaumet, absorbing B.M.C. now rather than in 2028 means locking in both capacity and craft at a moment when both are scarce and getting scarcer. By integrating B.M.C. quickly, Chaumet secures a strategic asset and gains access to Valenza's exceptional pool of talent, where some of Europe's finest jewelry artisans are concentrated.

Chaumet is not alone in this instinct. Last March, the Kering Group, a brand built on a dream, finalized an initial 20 percent stake in Raselli Franco Group, one of Europe's largest independent luxury jewelry manufacturers, for 115 million euros, also based in Valenza, with a stated intention to acquire the entire company by 2032. It follows an established pattern for the group, which has previously moved to deepen its Italian production oversight by establishing its own testing laboratories in Tuscany. The parallel is instructive. Two rival luxury groups, within months of each other, have each moved to buy up the same small Piedmontese town's most valuable ateliers. The message from Paris to Valenza is unambiguous: ownership of the hand that sets the stone now matters as much as ownership of the name on the box.

For Mumbai's and India's expanding circle of fine jewelry collectors, the implications sit closer than the geography suggests. High jewelry bought at Place Vendôme addresses, or through their India-facing boutiques, increasingly carries a manufacturing story alongside its design story. That shift is visible in moments such as the launch of a major high jewellery collection in India. A house that owns its atelier outright can guarantee provenance, exclusivity of technique, and delivery timelines in a way that a house dependent on shared external workshops cannot always promise, a distinction that is beginning to matter to Indian UHNWI buyers who ask not just who designed a piece, but who made it.

What the B.M.C. deal ultimately signals is a quiet redrawing of value inside the luxury jewelry supply chain, one where the atelier is no longer a vendor to be managed but an asset to be owned outright, and where the houses that move first on that logic will be the ones setting the terms for everyone who comes after.

The LuxuryAbode View

The B.M.C. acquisition is not really a story about one Italian manufacturer changing hands. It is the clearest evidence yet that fine jewelry's competitive battleground has shifted from the showroom to the workshop floor.

Craft Custody is LuxuryAbode's term for the emerging strategic doctrine among luxury conglomerates: securing outright ownership of the ateliers and manufacturers behind their pieces, rather than relying on external supplier relationships, as a means of protecting both craftsmanship provenance and margin. Expect Craft Custody to be the operative frame for understanding luxury's next wave of vertical acquisitions.

For decades, luxury conglomerates treated design, brand heritage, and retail experience as the primary levers of pricing power. Manufacturing was outsourced, treated as a cost center to be managed rather than an asset to be owned. That logic is now reversing. As control over manufacturing capabilities becomes just as strategic as the creative process itself, the biggest luxury conglomerates in the world are independently converging on the same Piedmontese address book, and paying to own it outright rather than merely contract with it.

Three forces are driving this. First, scarcity of true artisanal skill: Valenza's goldsmithing talent pool is finite and aging, and no amount of brand equity can manufacture craftsmanship on demand, which is why the emergence of a new generation of goldsmiths in luxury jewelry carries such weight. Second, margin protection: owning the atelier removes a layer of supplier pricing power at a moment when raw material costs and labor costs are both rising, a dynamic traced across a comprehensive analysis of the global luxury jewelry market. Third, and perhaps most relevant for LuxuryAbode's readership, provenance as a selling proposition: as buyers grow more sophisticated, the ability to say a piece was made entirely in-house, by artisans the house itself employs, becomes a differentiator worth paying a premium for, in the spirit of the many crafts held within a fully integrated manufacture.

For India's affluent buyers, this has a direct read-through. As Indian UHNWIs increasingly buy high jewelry as much for craftsmanship provenance as for design, houses with vertically integrated ateliers will be positioned to tell a more credible, more exclusive story, one that justifies both price and waitlists.

The Numbers, On the Record

• Chaumet has completed its acquisition of 100 percent of B.M.C. S.p.A., two years ahead of the original 2028 schedule, per LuxuryAbode's reading of the transaction timeline.
• B.M.C. S.p.A. was founded in 2001 by Carlo Massavelli and Maurizio Bozza and employs roughly 330 people across two facilities in Valenza and Sesto Calende.
• B.M.C. reported revenue of 65.11 million euros in 2025, up from 61.1 million euros in 2024, a growth rate of approximately 6.6 percent.
• B.M.C.'s inventory, largely precious metals, is valued at nearly 40 million euros.
• Chaumet first acquired a partial stake in B.M.C. in 2020, giving the maison six years of embedded operational familiarity before taking full control.
• In a parallel move, Kering paid 115 million euros for a 20 percent stake in fellow Valenza manufacturer Raselli Franco Group, with full acquisition planned by 2032, underscoring the industry-wide pattern LuxuryAbode terms Craft Custody.

Craft Custody in Practice

The Chanel entry is worth noting, since the house has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to buy the assets underpinning its business outright, having previously moved to secure its retail estate by purchasing its Bond Street boutique outright. Craft Custody applies the same reasoning one step further back in the chain, to the hands that make the product rather than the rooms that sell it.

FAQ

What did Chaumet acquire?

Chaumet acquired 100 percent of B.M.C. S.p.A., an Italian fine jewelry manufacturer based in Valenza, Piedmont, having held a partial stake in the company since 2020.

Why did Chaumet move up the acquisition timeline?

The deal was originally scheduled for 2028. Chaumet accelerated it by two years to secure manufacturing capacity and artisanal talent at a time when smaller Italian jewelry manufacturers face margin pressure, making acquisitions more favorable for larger buyers.

How big is B.M.C.?

B.M.C. employs approximately 330 people across two production facilities in Valenza and Sesto Calende, and generated 65.11 million euros in revenue in 2025.

Is this part of a wider trend in luxury jewelry?

Yes. Kering recently acquired a 20 percent stake in Raselli Franco Group, another Valenza-based manufacturer, with plans for full ownership by 2032, reflecting an industry-wide push by major houses to own their supply chains outright.

Why does this matter to Indian luxury buyers?

As Indian collectors increasingly value manufacturing provenance alongside design heritage, houses that own their ateliers outright, like Chaumet with B.M.C., can offer stronger guarantees of authenticity, exclusivity, and delivery reliability.

LuxuryAbode continues to track the ownership structures behind the world's most coveted jewelry houses, offering brands, ateliers, and personalities operating at this intersection of craft and capital a platform to reach India's fastest-growing base of fine jewelry collectors. Houses and manufacturers shaping this next chapter of vertical integration are welcome to reach out for feature consideration.

Disclaimer: All financial figures, revenue and inventory valuations, transaction values, stake percentages, and timelines in this article are indicative and compiled at the time of writing from trade and industry sourcing rather than official company statements, and should be independently verified against company disclosures and regulatory filings before being relied upon. Details concerning the acceleration of the acquisition timeline and the associated financial specifics reflect reporting attributed to individuals close to the parties and LuxuryAbode's own reading of the transaction, and have not been confirmed by Chaumet, LVMH, Kering, or B.M.C. S.p.A. Currency figures are stated as reported and are subject to exchange rate movement. This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial, or legal advice.