Printemps has appointed Rémy Baume as its new chief executive officer, filling a leadership vacancy that has persisted since the departure of former CEO Jean-Marc Bellaiche in September 2025. Baume, whose resume includes transformation roles at several major French retailers, assumes the position immediately, charged with steering the iconic Parisian department store through a period of significant change in the European luxury retail landscape.
Baume’s appointment comes at a moment when the Parisian retail landscape is being reshaped by forces that extend well beyond the department store category. The post-pandemic rebound in tourism has been slower than anticipated, particularly from the Chinese market, and the political uncertainty surrounding the French economic outlook has made luxury retailers cautious about investment. Printemps has nonetheless signaled that it plans to pursue an aggressive renovation schedule for its flagship stores, and Baume’s experience managing large-scale real estate projects while maintaining retail operations will be tested early in his tenure.
For the broader European retail sector, the Printemps CEO appointment is one of several leadership moves that suggest the department store category, long written off by analysts as structurally obsolete, is attempting to reinvent itself for a new era. Baume’s mandate — to modernize operations while preserving the experiential qualities that differentiate department stores from transactional e-commerce — is the same challenge facing leaders at Harrods, Selfridges, and Galeries Lafayette. Whether his transformation playbook, refined in less glamorous retail sectors, can translate to the high-stakes world of Parisian luxury will determine whether Printemps remains a vital part of the city’s commercial fabric or becomes a cautionary tale of another iconic retailer that failed to evolve.
Baume arrives at Printemps with a reputation as a hands-on operator who specializes in turning around legacy retail businesses. His most recent role was leading the French arm of a major European retail group, where he oversaw a multi-year digital transformation that modernized the company’s e-commerce operations while rationalizing its physical store portfolio. The Printemps board, in announcing the appointment, cited Baume’s ‘deep understanding of the retail consumer’ and his ‘proven ability to drive sustainable growth’ as key factors in the selection. The language is familiar from retail CEO appointments across the sector — but Baume’s track record suggests the board may be serious about the transformation agenda.
The new CEO inherits a business that occupies a distinctive position in the European luxury retail hierarchy. Printemps, founded in 1865, has long operated in the shadow of its Boulevard Haussmann neighbor Galeries Lafayette, but the chain has undergone a quiet reinvention in recent years under the ownership of the Deutsche Bank-backed financing group that acquired it. The company has invested heavily in its beauty and accessories categories, expanded its private-label offerings, and launched a series of pop-up partnerships with emerging designers that have brought a younger, more fashion-forward customer into its doors. The challenge for Baume is to accelerate these initiatives while addressing the structural issues — high occupancy costs, dependence on tourism-driven foot traffic, and competition from e-commerce — that have compressed margins across the European department store sector.
