The luxury goods group Hermès announced on Tuesday the construction of two new leather goods factories in France. One is due to be built by 2025 in the municipality of L’Isle-d’Espagnac in Charentes, and the second will follow in 2026 in the municipality of Loupes in Gironde. The two factories are expected to create 500 jobs.
Hermès leather goods workshops in L’Isle-d’Espagnac and Loupes
The two new locations will be “the House’s 23rd and 24th leather goods workshops, all located in France” and will employ a total of “more than 4,300 saddlers and leather goods makers,” according to Hermès in a statement. “The leather goods factory in L’isle-d’Espagnac joins the pole of factories in the south-west, which includes the leather goods factories in Nontron, Montbron and the glove factory in Saint-Junien, which have been present in the region for more than 25 years” , according to the group.
As for the Loupes factory, “it will form, together with the Guyenne leather goods factory, the Hermès site in Gironde, which will become the eighth leather goods center of the company.”
These two new sites come on top of three other projects “being developed in Louviers (Eure), Tournes and Cliron (Ardennes) and Riom (Puy-de-Dôme), where recruitment and training will continue,” it said. Hermès has 52 factories and production sites in France and a network of over 300 stores in 45 countries. The fashion and leather goods store employs around 17,600 people worldwide, almost 11,000 of them in France – 6,000 of them craftsmen.
The group recorded “its best year” in 2021 with a net profit of 2.44 billion euros and sales of almost 9 billion euros – a total that the group had originally only expected in 2024 before the pandemic. (AFP)
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.fr.