John Galantic has departed as CEO of Tod’s SpA after less than two years in the role, leaving the Italian luxury group known for its driving loafers and Gommino moccasins without a permanent chief executive at a critical juncture in its evolution. Galantic, who took the helm in September 2024, left the company at the end of April, a Tod’s representative confirmed, citing personal reasons. A successor has not been named, with the board now tasked with finding a leader capable of navigating the brand through a luxury market that has grown increasingly unforgiving toward heritage houses without a clear generational proposition.
The challenge for Tod’s next CEO will be to answer a question that has dogged the brand for the better part of a decade: can a house defined by a single product category — shoes — expand into a full-fledged luxury lifestyle brand without losing the authenticity that made it desirable in the first place? The Gommino loafer, which accounts for an estimated 40 percent of Tod’s revenue, is both the brand’s greatest asset and its most significant strategic liability. Competitors from Loro Piana to Brunello Cucinelli have demonstrated that heritage Italian craftsmanship can translate into multi-category success, but both of those brands benefited from clear creative direction and consistent executive leadership — neither of which Tod’s has maintained over the past five years.
The CEO departure lands against a backdrop of broader uncertainty at Tod’s. The Della Valle family, which controls a majority stake in the company, has been exploring strategic options for the brand, including a potential sale or partnership, according to sources familiar with the matter. A sale would cap a tumultuous chapter for the 100-year-old company, which has struggled to articulate a compelling identity in a luxury landscape divided between overtly logo-driven houses and stealth-wealth minimalists. Tod’s proposition — quiet, craftsmanship-focused, rooted in the codes of Italian leisure — occupies a middle ground that has proven increasingly difficult to defend as consumers gravitate toward either end of the spectrum.
Galantic’s tenure, though brief, was not without accomplishment. The former LVMH and Estée Lauder executive oversaw a streamlining of Tod’s retail footprint, closing underperforming doors while investing in flagship renovations that brought a contemporary design language to the brand’s stores in Milan, Tokyo, and Beverly Hills. He also accelerated the brand’s digital commerce infrastructure, launching a redesigned e-commerce platform and expanding Tod’s presence on luxury marketplace Farfetch. Yet these operational improvements were not reflected in the brand’s financial performance: Tod’s 2025 revenues grew at a modest 3 percent, trailing the broader luxury goods recovery and raising questions about whether the brand’s product offering — heavily reliant on its iconic loafer — was sufficiently diversified to capture share in a market increasingly driven by handbag and ready-to-wear sales.
The broader luxury market context makes Tod’s succession challenge particularly acute. The mid-tier of the luxury market — brands with strong heritage but limited cultural relevance among younger consumers — is being squeezed from both directions: above by mega-brands like Hermès and Chanel that continue to command pricing power, and below by contemporary labels like Bottega Veneta and The Row that have redefined what understated luxury looks like for a new generation. Tod’s, with its reverence for craftsmanship and its reluctance to chase trends, may be precisely the kind of brand that needs to lean harder into its difference rather than trying to compete on terms set by others. Finding a CEO who understands that distinction — and can build a business around it — is the board’s most urgent task.
