France: the luxury giant Hermès sees its sales explode despite the international context
The French house Hermès records record profits in the first two quarters of 2021. © ARND WIEGMANN/REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In France starts the results of companies for the first quarter fall these days.
In this context, sales of Hermès, the luxury giant, exceeded analysts' expectations, despite the confinement in China, the war between Russia and Ukraine and international sanctions against Moscow.
Advertisement
Read more
Sales of Hermès jumped by 33%, which brought it nearly 2 billion eight hundred million euros, this first quarter, compared to last year at the same period.
The French luxury giant, whose core business is leather goods and saddlery, confirms ambitious progress despite economic and geopolitical uncertainties.
Hermès was
the first group to close its three stores in Russia in
early March, where it employs 60 people.
He has also given up on opening a fourth store in Saint Petersburg.
Closures without much consequence, according to him, since Russia represents less than 1% of its sales.
It also no longer sells to Russian oligarchs who are on the sanctioned list and it has no presence in Ukraine.
The luxury giant, on the other hand, has 26 stores in China, some of which are closing and reopening according
to the confinements imposed by the zero Covid policy of the country
, a large consumer of luxury goods.
In reality, the group's growth is driven by its sales in America, in particular the United States with a jump of 44%, by Europe including France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain and by other Asian countries, such as Japan.
Apart from leather goods, sales of clothing and accessories also rose by 44%.
Perfumes and beauty products by 18%, watchmaking by 62% and other trades by 37%.
Hermès also plans to open two new leather goods factories in France in 2025 and 2026, with 500 key hires, and three other factories are under construction.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Economy
Russia
China
Ukraine
France