Montbron, a rural village in south-western France’s Charente region, once known for its textile and footwear expertise, has come alive again thanks to the arrival of Hermès, the international fashion house for luxury ‘Made in France’.
In a building of wood and light-colored stone that the region is also known for, the 260 artisans at the ‘Maroquinerie de la Tardoire’ beat, polish and work with hammers and needles the leathers that go into the brand’s wallets and bags.
“We make our pieces from A to Z, it’s an honor, it’s not factory work,” says Isabelle Cassard, 49, in one of the eight workshops with a stunning view over the countryside and her peaceful neighbors, the cows who graze there. This is where the issue of French deindustrialization, hotly debated in the presidential election campaign, becomes obvious.
An in-house training
Like this former head of department at Intermarché, the leather craftsmen completed a demanding eighteen-month in-house training course to learn the know-how of the House of Hermès, valued for its craftsmanship, before being able to make bags independently. A special feature of the house is that there are no age or experience criteria for recruitment. Among them are many lateral entrants who are guided by the desire to “create something beautiful”.
When Hermès left its luxury luggage in Montbron in 2012, the company hired a total of 280 workers, most of them in the nearby labor market region and in Angoulême, around its production axis in the south-west with two other sites in Nontron (Dordogne) and Saint-Junien (Haute-Vienne). ) to complete.
“What globalization took from us, it gave back to us in a second step. Within five years we have almost made up for the 300 jobs that have been lost in the textile and shoe industry since the 1990s,” summarizes Gwenhaël François, breeder of Limousin cattle and mayor of the 2,100-strong town, 30 kilometers away from Angoulême, proudly together. The craftsmen’s salary, which is never disclosed, is above the minimum wage and can reach up to 16 months’ wages when bonuses and profit-sharing are factored in.
According to the Charente Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the “manufacture of travel goods, leather goods and saddlery” sector was the largest private employer in the Community in 2020, while shoe manufacture still provided the majority of jobs in 2010.
“lifeline”
Even if the Charente is gradually being revived in small units, the area has been branded by the collapse of its flagships, from the Charente slippers from the La Rochefoucauld basin to the knitwear from Angel Moreau and the blankets from Toison d’Or. Bricq (technical textiles), which employed up to 400 people and today only has a few dozen. “The community saw their youth disappearing and slowly fell asleep,” the mayor said.
“It was an industrial wreck and Hermès came to our rescue,” said his predecessor, ex-senator and former socialist president of the department, Michel Boutant, who was one of the proponents of settling the site. “Even if ultimately very few of our craftsmen come from the former textile or shoe industry, the group is sensitive to the traditions of manufacturing and crafts in an area. Beyond embossing, the quality standards of these professions remain,” emphasizes Emmanuel Pommier, General Director of the Leather Goods and Saddlery Crafts Department at Hermès.
With its artisan business model “anchored in the regions”, Hermès counts over 4,000 saddlery and leather craftsmen in 19 workshops in France and aims to recruit 600 new employees by 2022, including 70 in the south-west region, to meet the rapidly increasing international demand. This autumn, Montbron, like the other regions, will have its own training school, which will issue a CAP leather goods.
Another piece of good news for Montbron, where the mayor has the ambition to renovate 20 furnished apartments to welcome the newcomers. With the arrival of Hermès and about 30 new families, two classes were reopened in the local school – the school previously lost a class every four years. With the support of the community, which is buying up and renovating derelict buildings, new shops and craft workshops have sprung up.
“We saw houses being renovated. Open shutters instead of closed ones,” confirms Annabelle Fontanges, craftswoman at Hermès. “It’s not all clear yet,” but one thing is certain for the mayor: “We’re no longer seen in the same light.” (AFP)
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.fr. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ.