French luxury company Hermès announced a decline in its net profit for 2025 on Thursday. Profit fell by 1.72 percent to 4.5 billion euros. The main reason for this is the extraordinary special tax that was imposed on large companies to restructure French public finances.
Without this special contribution, “which will amount to 330 million euros in 2025”, the net profit would have increased by 5.5 percent compared to 2024. The group’s managing director, Axel Dumas, explained this in a conversation with journalists. The group’s sales rose by 5.5 percent to 16 billion euros.
‘A problem’ every two years
“I can’t make a forecast for 2026,” he added. “We have returned to a world where every two years a problem arises somewhere and a region is blocked,” said Dumas. “There was a big change: Covid, when all zones were blocked, and the post-Covid period, when all zones functioned at the same time,” he explained. Today, “I find myself in a situation similar to the beginning of my career, where something is always happening somewhere.”
However, for 2026, the managing director of Hermès sees “very strong growth in the United States and a stable Europe”. “I continue to be impressed by the results in Japan. I attribute this to the work of our teams,” praised Dumas. “Even when the business climate is a little difficult, we get results.”
Sales in Asia excluding Japan rose by 0.8 percent last year to a total of 6.7 billion euros. Adjusted for currency effects, the increase was five percent. He emphasized that Hermès has the distinction of having “never experienced a decline” in the so-called Greater China region, which includes Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and China. He also praised “a good fourth quarter” in this region. The Americas region had an “excellent year” with growth of 7.3 percent. This was marked by the opening of new stores in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Nashville, Tennessee. In addition, the Molière boutique in Mexico City reopened after a renovation. Supported “by the loyalty of local customers and the dynamism of tourist flows”, Europe also recorded “solid growth”. Growth outside France was ten percent and in France it was 8.9 percent, as Hermès announced.
Overall, sales in the leather goods and saddlery sector, the group’s core business, exceeded seven billion euros. This corresponds to an increase of 9.5 percent. According to the group, this was driven by strong demand for the collections and “increasing production capacity”.
Hermès will pay a bonus of 3,000 euros to all of its 26,500 employees worldwide in 2025. Of these, more than 16,000 are employed in France. In 2024 the bonus was 4,500 euros. At the general meeting on April 17, a dividend of 18 euros per share will be proposed, up from 16 euros in 2024.
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