Hermès opened its 25th leather goods workshop in March 2026, located in Loupes in the Gironde region of southwest France. The facility is the latest addition to a production network the group has been quietly expanding for a decade, with three further workshops under construction ahead of 2030 — in Charleville-Mézières (2027), Colombelles (2028), and Les Andelys (2030).
The expansion is strategic and serves multiple purposes simultaneously. Each new workshop adds approximately one percentage point to the group’s annual organic growth rate. It also keeps production within France — a core brand equity claim — and insulates the group from supply chain disruptions that have affected manufacturers reliant on Asian production.
The Hermès model is worth understanding as a business case, not just as a craft one. In Q1 2026, leather goods and saddlery grew 9.4% at constant exchange rates — the strongest performance across all the group’s divisions, and the primary reason Hermès continues to outperform every other major luxury house on profitability.
The through-line is production control. By owning its workshops, training its own artisans (a process that takes two years minimum), and resisting the temptation to license or offshore, Hermès has built a margin structure that competitors cannot easily replicate. Each Birkin takes approximately 18 hours of skilled labour. That is not a marketing claim — it is a cost that, at the right price point, becomes a moat.
The question for smaller leather goods makers is not whether to match the scale, but whether to match the principle: that the person making the bag and the brand selling it should be the same entity, or at least deeply aligned. That alignment is what determines long-term quality consistency — and it is increasingly what discerning buyers are asking about.