Hermès begins construction of a leather goods workshop east of Angoulême, France

Hermès is further enhancing its production capacity in France, focusing yet again on leather crafts, particularly in the South-West region of France. The luxury house has announced the construction of a new leather goods workshop, set to open in 2025 in Isle-d’Espagnac, located four kilometers from Angoulême, in Charente. This site is expected to eventually employ 260 artisans.

This new factory “joins the South-West hub, which already includes the Montbron leather goods workshop, inaugurated in 2015, the Nontron leather goods workshop, and the Saint-Junien glove and leather goods workshop, all of which have been in the region for over twenty-five years,” stated the French luxury house in a press release.

These four closely located sites leverage the Hermès School of Crafts, which was launched in September 2022 in Marthon, not far from Angoulême. This training center, accredited by the National Education, recruits two classes of 40 apprentices each year, to train in leather goods and saddlery, cutting and stitching, ensuring the transmission of artisanal know-how and the house’s culture. Therefore, training for the new Isle-d’Espagnac factory has already begun.

The future 5,500 square-meter building, set to be built the site of a former aerodrome, aims for carbon neutrality. Designed by the Bordeaux architectural firm Guiraud-Manenc, the building, equipped with photovoltaic panels, will be built using a wooden structure with straw-based insulation and covered with Charente stones, blending into the landscape.

In the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, beyond these four sites, Hermès also operates the Guyenne leather goods workshop, established in 2019 in the town of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, north of Bayonne. Furthermore, the house plans to open another leather goods workshop in France, again in Gironde, in Loupes, which is about twenty kilometers east of Bordeaux, with a 6,000 square-meter site. 

In 2023, sales of leather goods and saddlery, the group’s core business known for its famous Birkin and Kelly bags, increased by 11.8%, reaching 5.5 billion euros on a total revenue of 13.4 billion euros, up 16% compared to the previous year.