Hermès inaugurated its 19th leather goods factory in France on Friday September 10. The factory is called Maroquinerie de Guyenne, and is located in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, near Bordeaux. Over the past 10 years, the maison has opened an average of one new production site per year. In doing so, it has hired between 400 and 500 people per year for leather goods production alone. Hermès has already decided its next steps: in 2022 it will open a new production workshop in Louviers. The following year, it will open another in Tournes, in the Ardennes. In 2023, there will be a second site in Auvergne.
The 19th leather goods factory
Hermès inaugurated Maroquinerie de Guyenne. It employs 200 people. Of these, 50 come from other French factories of the brand, and will be in charge of training in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. In the future, the number of employees will rise to 280. “We see a very strong demand. That’s why we continue to invest,” Guillaume de Seynes, managing director of Hermès, told WWD. Production growth never seems to be able to fill the sustained demand for bags, as there is always a rather long waiting list.
The sense of the market
Are waiting lists a strategy to make Hermès items more exclusive? De Seynes himself answers: “It is very frustrating for us not to be able to satisfy everyone. At the same time, we don’t do it to create an artificial market. We are doing it because we have no intention of lowering our quality standards, which are based on an artisanal production model that is growing as fast as possible. It’s not about investing in machines, production chains and pushing a button”. Hermès says it is growing as fast as possible, considering the 18 months it takes to train new employees and the shortage of skilled workers across the industry.
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