Though perhaps best known today for its ladies’ silk scarves, French luxury brand Hermès started out as a saddlemaker and still produces numerous leather goods, among them the famous Kelly purse, launched in the 1930s and given its current name after Princess Grace of Monaco was spotted hiding her pregnancy behind one in the late 1950s. With a 2022 turnover of $12 billion and net profits of $3.7 billion—a 38 percent increase over 2021—the non-public company, owned and run by descendants of the founders, is in full expansion, opening new sites of manufacture and scouring France for a labor force skilled enough to work to its extremely exacting standards (there’s currently a six-to-seven-year waiting list for a Kelly, which retails at around $7,500).
Hermès’s nine French production hubs are scattered around the country. In Normandy, the firm operates facilities near Louviers, 60 miles northwest of Paris. This January, Hermès’s Norman production capacity was greatly increased by the opening of a brand-new leather-goods workshop, a 66,700-square-foot building that, once running at full steam, will employ 260 craftspeople. Designed by Paris-based Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh, who won the 2019 design competition, it is intended as a paragon of sustainable development.
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