Hermès opens its 23rd leather goods workshop in Riom (Puy-de-Dôme) and creates 280 jobs

In the presence of Axel Dumas, Chief Executive Officer of Hermès , Guillaume de Seynes, Executive Vice President of Hermès, and Olivier Fournier, Managing Director in charge of Governance and Organisational Development, the Riom leather goods workshop, the second site in the Group's Auvergne division, opened its doors, significantly expanding its traditional model in the region. The Riom leather goods workshop will employ 250 artisans trained locally in the company's know-how and around thirty administrative positions. The first production site in the region - the Hermès leather goods workshop in Sayat - opened 20 years ago, and the École Hermès des Savoir-Faire, which opened in Riom in 2022, will provide invaluable assistance in passing on the know-how needed to develop the expertise of the company's saddlery and leather goods artisans.

For this 7,000m2 site in Riom, Hermès chose to renovate one of the wings of the Manufacture des Tabacs de Riom, a former industrial site (1877) listed as a historic monument in 2004. This former factory, which employed 804 people in 1920, had seen its surface area expanded with the addition of annexes and a new 100-metre-long wing in 1936. These extensions, abandoned since the closure of the Manufacture des Tabacs in 1975, give life to the new Hermès site today. The new site also aligns with the company's eco-responsible approach, focusing on local partners and sourcing sustainable materials for the renovation.

The creation of this new site reflects the success of Hermès' leather goods and saddlery collections. The business currently accounts for 41% of consolidated sales and generated sales of €5.54 billion in 2023. The brand wants its production to be 100% French.

Axel Dumas declared at the inauguration: "It's important to make beautiful things in beautiful places, in other words to produce in an environment that allows the artisans to feel good. The world is changing, but I'm happy to be back in the same workshop configuration as when I was a child: leather cutting in the centre, the sticking workshop with the table, and all the artisans able to communicate easily. This togetherness is essential."

To ensure that the know-how of its leather goods is passed on, Hermès opened the École Hermès des Savoir-Faire in 2021, with 8 regional training schools, including one in Riom. This apprentice training centre (CFA), accredited by the French Ministry of Education, is authorised to award the CAP in leather goods and the Certificat de qualification professionnelle (CQP) in cutting.

Since 2010, Hermès has opened twelve leather goods workshops in France. Three other workshop projects are in the pipeline, at L'Isle d'Espagnac (Charente), Loupes (Gironde) and Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes), where recruitment and training are underway. The brand will have 26 leather goods and saddlery production sites in France.

By June 2024, the Hermès group employed 23,200 people worldwide, including 14,300 in France, among which more than 7,300 craftsmen. Hermès has been headed since 2013 by Axel Dumas, a sixth-generation member.