In the courtyard of a former tobacco factory, Axel Dumas chats animatedly with a group of people. A few minutes later, they go onto a small stage: “The world is changing, but I am happy to find a workshop similar to the one that created me: the leather cutting in the center, the assembly workshop with its table, and all the artisans can communicate easily. This union is now essential.” To applause, the CEO of Hermès, sixth generation of the family business founded in 1837, inaugurates the brand’s 23rd leather goods workshop, this time in Riom, a town of just under 20,000 inhabitants.
Here work 280 artisans who have learned to create Birkin and Constance pockets, although during the inauguration they also received instructions and artisans from other neighboring workshops. Because every time Hermès opens a new store (workshopas they call it), the celebration is bigger than any fashion show or exclusive launch. Three months ago, number 24 opened, in L’Isle-d’Espagnac, in the Nueva Aquitania region, a former aerodrome where 260 artisans make Kelly and Birkin pockets.
In none of these spaces do more than 300 people work. In this way, proximity is favored in the field, and the master-apprentice process is also facilitated, because next to each workshop there is a craft school. To sustain its economic model, Hermès created in 2021 the Hermès School of Savoir-Faire, a training center approved by the Ministry of National Education. “Normally, there is one tutor for every three apprentices,” explains Olivier Fournier, executive vice president of corporate development and social affairs and president of Fundación Empresarial Hermès.
“We organize information meetings where we explain the project of a new workshop. Sometimes we see 1,000 people, sometimes 300 or 400 per meeting, just to listen to the project. We organize tests to see if people are agile and able to work with their hands. If everything goes well, then you have an interview and, finally, I can enter the school.” During his training period, he worked hand in hand with craftsmen who spent years in the house, “some became teachers and facilitators of a new teacher. It’s a way of giving them new motivation”, explains Fournier.
Hermès made 15.2 billion euros in 2024. Up 15% compared to the previous year. It is the only major luxury brand to see growth in recent years, as the sector recorded its first sales decline in decades. It is also the only study with a significant volume of activity that can demonstrate that all of its skin products are made in France. Of the 16 offices professions which is developing, it is leather goods which is experiencing the strongest growth, by 18% in 2024. “We are global, but we work locally. It’s our culture,” explains Fournier.
Of the approximately 24,000 people the brand employs worldwide, 14,600 live in France and around 8,000 are artisans. They are at the center of this project since several siglos have been set up at number 24 rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré to manufacture riding saddles and other equestrian accessories. Where the first generations lived, they continue to be made. “At Hermès there is no great written tradition, everything is oral. The important thing is not to lock the objects in an urn, but it takes time for them to live and put them to rest,” explains Frédéric Laffont, author of The craftsman’s house (Lumen), which was able to devote three years to developing archives in this epicenter of luxury. “Hey, I don’t see a lot of luxury, but I think today everyone uses the word artisan, and yet when you go to Saint-Honoré, you don’t have the feeling of being in a sacred place and none of that. But it means being with people who have spent half their lives creating objects with their hands that they will survive.”
“True sustainability goes beyond materials and production. Empathy and respect for humans. Without creating the right conditions for people to grow and live in a comfortable environment, there is no sustainability,” says Fournier. It is therefore a question of bringing together and expanding this network of workshops and schools which investigate the small French towns victims of the deindustrialization carried out over the last 50 years, places where an artisanal tradition existed. And it reactivates. “We take it as a responsibility,” he says.
Fournier says that in France there is no tradition of moving to big cities to look for work alternatives. “Here, if you belong to a territory, you want to stay there if there is an opportunity,” he explains. This is why Hermès is opening a workshop in a city of this type, it is giving work to hundreds of people, it is also revitalizing the neighborhood and offering a benefit to the younger generations. In Riom, for example, young people of twenty and three rub shoulders with middle-aged people. Some worked in professions related to crafts, others devoted themselves to very different professions, but decided to abandon their old way of life to enter school. “Today, young people are more interested in textbooks than before. It’s fascinating to see them motivated and having the impression of creating objects,” says the vice-president. “We sometimes read in the press that young people do not want to work. This is absolutely false,” he added.
Hermès’ strategy has followed the same path since 1837: respect for craftsmanship and time to create objects of extreme quality. But now, this local alliance has become its main competitive advantage in these uncertain times for luxury. The house does not depend on external service providers, it does not suffer from volatility in its quality and above all it maintains an agile pace under market pressure. A few months ago, the first clutch created for Jane Birkin was sold in a Parisian sub-boutique for 8.6 million euros. El birkin It’s perhaps the most famous pocket in the world, and its legend has been fueled for decades by rumors of endless waiting lists to join one. But here, the economy of scarcity takes on its full meaning. “It’s not about waiting, it’s just that it takes time for what we do to be perfect,” explains Fournier. “Everything we make has a purpose, for someone to be involved in the process and understand the importance of it, there has to be rhythm and practice.” Here each pouch is secured by a craftsman. It’s your job. “It’s a ritual. It’s the emotional charge that’s deposited there.”
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