Louis Vuitton to open new factories in France to meet demand for leather goods

London – Luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton is set to open at least two new
leather workshops in France in order to keep up with the growing demand for
its goods and cut down on production time.

The French fashion house aims to hire 500 new people for its new production
sites in western France. The first of the new factories is set to open this
July, with the second slated to be up and running by early 2019, bringing
the total of Louis Vuitton’s leather good specialists to approximately
4,000 across 16 production sites in France.

A third production site should follow by 2020 as well in order to help
Louis Vuitton meet the increasing demand for its leather goods, revealed
Emmanuel Mathieu, Louis Vuitton’s industrial director to Business of
Fashion. The ongoing expansion of Louis Vuitton own production facilities
is set cut lead times, allowing the luxury fashion house to react faster to
sales trends and deliver handbags within a week of internal orders being
placed, down from two weeks.

“When we launch a new product we can adapt very quickly to demand,” Mathieu
explained, adding certain styles are assembled by hand on site by the 250
specialists working within a factory. Although Louis Vuitton is known for
its “Made in France” appeal, it does have several factories located around
the globe to help keep lead times on its leather goods down to a minimum.

For example, it currently operates two factories in California to serve its
US market, with plans to open another in Texas. Leather workshops in
Catalonia and production sites in Portugal and Romania also serve its
European market.