LVMH’s Louis Vuitton is planning to hire around 1,500 manufacturing staff in France over the next 3 years, in order to ramp up production to feed surging demand from China and other emerging economies.
Louis Vuitton is the biggest revenue generator of LVMH and makes the bulk of its trademark leather and canvas handbags in its home market, where it employs around 4,300 people in 16 leather goods workshops.
Even as the luxury label has its factories in Italy, Spain and the US, Chief Executive Officer Michael Burke maintained that it is committed to keeping the majority of its supply chain in France.
“If we let the craftsmanship leave, even to places as close as Italy, I think it’s inevitable that the minds, the creativity in the sector will follow,” Burke said as the company inaugurated its 16th factory in France at a site near the city of Angers.
The firm could add a further site next to its newly opened workshop outside the village of Beaulieu-Sur-Layon in western France.
Like rivals including Kering’s Gucci, Vuitton is riding high on strong appetite among young Chinese consumers for branded goods. Chinese consumers fueled a 20 per cent increase in sales of fashion and leather goods last quarter for Louis Vuitton parent LVMH and Burke said demand from China remains ‘exceptional’ but the brand has no plans to relocate any manufacturing to China or Asia.
Burke also maintained that the brand aimed to eventually recycle all unsold goods as it fine tunes its manufacturing process to limit excess inventories.
