LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate, has announced that it will provide around 40 million surgical masks to france. the group has ordered the health masks from a chinese supplier to help france cope with the coronavirus outbreak.

 

10 million masks are already due to arrive from a chinese industrial supplier in the coming days, LVMH said in a statement on saturday. this initial batch will be given to the french health service for distribution to those in need early next week. additional orders of a similar scale will be funded by the state and repeated for ‘at least four weeks’.

 

‘by virtue of its global distribution network, lvmh has managed to secure an order with a chinese industrial supplier for a delivery of 10 million masks in france in the coming days (seven million surgical masks and three million FFP2 masks). the order will be repeated for at least four weeks in similar quantities (ie approximately 40 million masks),’ the group said.

 

‘the LVMH group will assume management of the supply chain, delivery and custom clearance for all subsequent deliveries.’

 

‘in order to secure this (mask) order during an extremely tense period and to ensure that the production begins today, bernard arnault arranged for LVMH to finance the whole of the first week of deliveries, amounting to five million euros ($5.4 million).’

 

this follows news that LVMH would convert three of its cosmetics factories to produce antibacterial gel, which it is distributing for free to combat the spread of the virus. many other labels and individual designers, including donatella versace, have made monetary contributions to hospitals, particularly in milan, the european epicentre of the virus.