Swarovski's family feuded over restructuring — 6,000 jobs, then outsiders took over

Swarovski spent 125 years as the world's crystal house, run by the descendants of founder Daniel Swarovski. Every top job was a family job: CEO Robert Buchbauer and CFO Mathias Margreiter were great-great-grandchildren of the founder, and the board had no outsiders to speak of. The model was already slipping before COVID — sales fell from €3.5 billion in 2017 to €2.7 billion in 2019 as rhinestone fashion faded — but the family's grip on leadership never loosened.

When COVID hit, the decline became a collapse. In July 2020 Swarovski said 2020 revenue would fall about 35% to roughly €2 billion; by December the projection was a 30% drop to about €1.9 billion. Management cut around 6,000 jobs worldwide, including 1,600 at the Wattens headquarters. CEO Buchbauer's answer was a restructuring that would fold the Wattens operations into a holding company and concentrate more power in his hands — and that is when the family split.

Paul Swarovski, a shareholder and former executive board member, joined by board member Nadja Swarovski, her father Helmut and uncle Gerhard, claimed the family held veto rights over the plan. Their faction, about 20% of the shares, filed for arbitration to void it. Buchbauer had the backing of family members holding roughly 80%. The fight went public in December 2020: "We are forced to reimagine and rescale our entire Swarovski business," Buchbauer said, while Paul Swarovski warned of "the captain who is steering us toward a reef."

The feud cost the family the thing it was fighting to keep. Buchbauer and CFO Margreiter stepped down in October 2021; Nadja Swarovski announced her departure in December 2021, and the board took in five non-family members. In July 2022 Alexis Nasard became the first non-family CEO in the company's 127-year history. The turnaround he ran worked: 2023 revenue rose 4% to €1,832 million with 10% like-for-like growth. The family kept its ownership — and lost its monopoly on the top jobs.