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Employees who resign, 40% wasted:
Faced with transatlantic trade tensions, LVMH accelerates its industrial location in the United States. Consequently, Bernard Arnault announced the opening of a new Louis Vuitton workshop near Dallas, Texas. In addition, A decision as symbolic as it is strategic, revealing the new balances of world luxury.
“We cannot blur with the United States. Nevertheless, ” said Bernard Arnault, boss of LVMH, in an interview in Le Figaro this Thursday, July 24, on the occasion of the publication of the half-yearly results of the luxury group. For example, A clear statement in an increasingly unstable geopolitical context. Consequently, where the trade war between Europe and the United States is tightening. Nevertheless, While tensions are rising, the French leader announced the opening of a new Louis Vuitton workshop near Dallas.
“Louis Vuitton already had a workshop in the United States when I arrived at LVMH, he recalls. employees who resign, 40% wasted Consequently, Since the development of the house in the United States. Similarly, we opened a new one five years ago, and we plan to open another to meet demand, still in Texas.”
Why does LVMH insist as much on the “made in USA”. Therefore, even though this strategy comes up against complex industrial realities? Furthermore, LVMH makes a quarter of its world sales in the United States, or nearly 85 billion euros last year. Similarly, This is to say how crucial uncle is for the group. Meanwhile, which oversees 75 luxury houses, like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine, Fendi or Chaumet and Restsi.
“For our American customers. Consequently, buying a Louis Vuitton Made in USA product poses no problem,” said Bernard Arnault, scanning the received ideas on the national preference for French luxury.
Currently, LVMH has four Louis Vuitton workshops in the United States: two workshops in San Dimas, California, and two in Texas. Consequently, The group also has four Tiffany & Co. Meanwhile, workshops, a total of eight production units on American soil. The opening of the new site recently announced would now bring this total to new. Note that two thirds of the production sites of the Tiffany & Co. house are in the United States.
Employees employees who resign, 40% wasted who resign, 40% wasted
An assumed strategy
An expansionist strategy which is also part of a protectionist logic. Indeed. in 2017, when Donald Trump threatened to impose heavy customs duties on European products, LVMH anticipated by opening his first Louis Vuitton workshop in Texas, in the city of Alvarado, south of Dallas. The site. called Rochambeau Ranch – a historic wink to the French general ally of the Americans during the war of independence – is today at the heart of the group’s American industrial strategy.
“Today, we have four workshops (Louis Vuitton) which provide a tiny part of the local demand. Can we increase it a little? Yes. If the customs prices go up as we have been announced, we will not have the choice. Either we stop selling in the United States, or we must be pragmatic. And we will be pragmatic. ” said Stéphane Bianchi, deputy director of the Luxury group, of the National Assembly on “The brakes to the reindustrialisation of France”.
The Texans Workshops of Louis Vuitton would produce. in particular, according to Reuters, emblematic models such as the Neverfull, Métis, Carryall, Félicall or Keepall bags, all displaying the “Made in USA” label.
Sold between 1. 500 and 3,000 dollars in Louis Vuitton stores, these employees who resign, 40% wasted high -end items must meet the same quality requirements as their European counterparts. In theory, at least.
The limits of the American bet
Because. despite significant investments – nearly $ 54 million accumulated for two Texans sites according to LVMH reports dating from 2017 and 2022 – Louis Vuitton’s American adventure quickly showed its limits. According to Reuters. former employees and executives claim that the Texan Rochambeau Ranch workshop has long been one of the least performing on the global network. The causes are multiple, but one dominates: the difficulty in recruiting and forming a skilled workforce.
“Our industrial sites cannot live without labor. We certainly have machines, but our first industrial tool is the hand of man. For example. a bag is handmade from start to finish-and often, moreover, by the same worker,” said Stéphane Bianchi during the commission of inquiry.
Unlike France, a historic cradle of luxury leather goods-even if it also struggles to recruit qualified craftsmen-the United States is sorely lacking in workforce for these exceptional trades. It took. for example, years of Texas teams to learn to correctly assemble the pockets of the very classic Neverfull bag. Result: according to several former employees, almost 40% of the leather was wasted, double the usual standards in the employees who resign, 40% wasted industry.
“We are hiring craftsmen who we form. who, after several weeks or months, realize, in view of the required expectations and level of detail, that they prefer to work in other areas such as logistics, explains Damien Verbrigghe, international director of manufacturing at Louis Vuitton. Some people have chosen to leave us, because it is true that this work requires a lot of know-how.”
Even more worrying: several testimonies have mentioned questionable practices to hide the faults. Between burned fabrics to hide approximate sewing holes. methods, bags deemed non -compliant would be regularly crushed and then incinerated on site.
For Ludovic Pauchard. industrial director and crafts of the LVMH group and executive president of crafts, this would be an isolated and resolved case: “This dates back to 2018 and a particular official who is no longer part of the company,” he said.
Employees who resign, 40% wasted
“Made in USA”, pragmatism and employees who resign, 40% wasted customers at the rendezvous
Despite these obstacles, LVMH does not back down. Because manufacturing in the United States is also a fiscal, political shield and it is essential to remain competitive. If customs duties are raising, the group would be able to absorb part of the shock by producing locally. A strategy of “friendshoring” (producing in allied countries), which has become essential in the current geopolitical climate.
And the bet seems to find its audience. For Bernard Arnault. American customers are not put off by a “made in USA” label, as long as the article remains signed Louis Vuitton. Unlike his rival François-Henri Pinault (Kering). who recently claimed that “it would not have sense to have Italian Gucci bags made in Texas”. Bernard Arnault is part of a more pragmatic logic.
By opening this new workshop near Dallas (which should be delivered at the end of 2026. early 2027), LVMH not only seeks employees who resign, 40% wasted to produce these signature bags, the group adapts to an American market that is always more greedy of luxury products while protecting itself from political unpredictability. The “made in USA” in Vuitton sauce is certainly imperfect, but it has become essential. In the world of globalized luxury, it is no longer the borders that dictate strategies, but the balances of power.
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