The luxury products market is living a silent transformation marked by counterpoints such as fever by Hermès bags as an active financial, and the uncertainty of tariff policies imposed by the US.
The French house has experienced such a high demand that, even with endless waiting lists, its bags remain desire on all continents. Given such success, Hermès has drawn her strategy for the coming years: to open four new workshops in France, increase your production of bags and transfer to the US client the cost of tariffs.
The anti -barred shield: “Made in France”. Unlike other industries, the luxury industry has not considered transferring its workshops to the US to avoid tariffs. Far from that, Hermès maintains her commitment to “fact in France” and European artisanal manufacturing announcing the opening of four new factories in France in the next four years.
With this decision, Hermès is positioned with other luxury brands such as Ferrari, which Does not contemplate In no scenario move its production outside Italy, or Rolls-Royce, which also You will expand Your Goodwood facilities.
William Susman, managing director of the Cascadia Capital Investment Bank, assured to The New York Times That this same reaffirmation in its essence is common to many other European luxury brands: “In each conversation that I have had with customers during the last five to ten days, not a single person talked about building a factory in the United States.”
Common Front: Money is not a problem. Both Hermès and Ferrari and Rolls-Royce have a client profile with high purchasing power and enormous appreciation for the quality of luxury products.
That has made the three brands have adopted the same position on the scenario of uncertainty: maintain production in Europe and transfer the extra cost caused by tariffs to their customers. Assume that an increase of 10% or 20% in the final price will not be an obstacle to its millionaire customers. “The price increase that we are going to implement will be only for the US, since it aims to compensate for tariffs that only apply to the US market, so there will be no price increases in the other regions,” said Eric du Halgouët, Executive Vice President of Finance of Hermès, in statements collected by CNBC.
Four factories and thousands of jobs. The new Hermès workshops will be located in different regions of France: Colombelles, isle d’Eguegnac, Loupes and Charleville-Mézières. Each of these workshops will have about 260 specialized artisans, which means the creation of more than 1,000 New jobs In the coming years. Hermès forms these artisans in their own school, the École Hermès des Savoir-Fairewhich qualifies them to manufacture their boring bags and products.
According to The specialized medium Wwd, The Colombian workshop, the factory will be built on an old industrial land and is expected to be operational in 2028 and will be especially dedicated to producing its Kelly and Constance bags. The Isle d’Eguegnac plant will open its doors at the end of this year, while those of Loupes and Charleville-Mézières will do so in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
The delicate balance of scarcity. Hermès’s sustained growth is reflected in her Financial results of the first quarter of 2025. The company billed 4,129 million euros, 8.5% more than the previous year and registered a 10% increase in sales of leather items compared to the previous year. This performance has allowed Hermès to overcome LVMH as The most valuable luxury company in the worldwith a capitalization of 276.3 billion dollars.
The strategy of maintaining limited production, based on exclusivity, has proven profitable and sustainable in the luxury sector, which has used it in all its versions. For this reason, Hermès cannot simply manufacture its products and must very carefully monitor the increase in units that puts on the market to preserve the value of those that have already been sold.
“We try to increase production at a fast pace, but we stay in the artisanal model, which in our opinion is synonymous with quality. We are not going to start looking for increases in productivity,” said Wwd Guillaume de Seynes, executive vice president of the manufacturing division and capital investments of Hermès.
Deminting myths: production is not in China. If you have opened Tiktok or Instagram in recent weeks you will have seen any of the thousands of Chinese influencers videos They have risen to their profiles, ensuring that Hermès and LVMH bags are manufactured in China by $ 1,400, but these brands multiply their price by ten. This is an argument widely used by the imitations market and the “top blanket”, which is A whole industry in China. The reality is very different.
The true added value of these brands lies in artisanal production in Europe. Hermès manufactures your leather bags and products in The 20 workshops that he has in France. LVMH, meanwhile, He does it in workshops located in France, Spain, Italy and the United States. Their watches are manufactured exclusively in watch workshops in Switzerland, while the jewelry lines of the signature of Bernard Arnault are created in France, Italy and Switzerland.
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Image | Hermès (Alfred Piola, Kevin Scott)
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