In Response To The Blowout Of Asia's Luxury Market, LV Plans To Add 1500 Manufacturing Jobs In France.

　　 According to Bloomberg news, in response to the surging market demand in China and other emerging regions, Louis Vuitton plans to increase roughly 1500 manufacturing jobs in France in the next three years. At present, the French luxury brand employs 4300 workers in its own country.

Louis Vuitton revealed the news on September 4th at a new workshop in Beaulieu-sur-Layon, France, on the riverside, France. This is the sixteenth leather production workshop of Louis Vuitton. It is also the first leather workshop that the brand has adopted a new production mode to improve production efficiency and reduce pollution.

Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive of Louis Vuitton, has promised to keep the labour force in France as much as possible, after all, "there are only two companies left in the market." Another company Burke refers to is LV's rival, Hermes. In addition, "most customers of LV still want leather bags from France," so Louis Vuitton does not intend to open factories all over the world.

Louis Vuitton, New Zealand workshop, Lai Yong river, France

At present, Louis Vuitton also has a workshop dedicated to leather goods development in Florence, Italy. In Spain, there are four workshops dealing with leather products and accessories, and three workshops specially designed for the American market in California and Texas.

Barnard Arnott, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH group, the parent company of Louis Vuitton (Bernard Arnault), said in 2018 that the group specifically controls the production scale of Louis Vuitton, aiming at keeping consumers' thirst for it. However, in order to cope with the huge international market, especially the strong demand in the Chinese market, Louis Vuitton is speeding up its construction and supply chain reform.

LVMH group's revenue grew 15% in the second quarter of this year, reaching 12 billion 540 million euros. Chinese consumers pushed the group's sales of fashion and leather goods up 20% in the second quarter. Michael Burke said in its earnings report that China's demand is still "excellent".

As the flagship luxury brand of LVMH group, LV is still the biggest contributor to the sales volume of the whole group. At a closed door meeting in early June this year, Louis Vuitton pointed out that the positive performance of online channels in the Chinese market promoted the growth of brand performance. In order to meet the growing demand, in the past year, Louis Vuitton has transferred large quantities of stock from neighboring countries to China's official website. The website is also the only online channel for LV in China, which accounts for 8% of the sales volume of the brand in the Chinese market. The company expects that with the reform of the Chinese government's luxury tax and the narrowing of the price gap between the Chinese market and other regions, Chinese consumers will increasingly focus on luxury consumption in the local market and neighboring countries.

Transferring inventory is probably not a permanent solution. What Louis Vuitton is doing is upgrading the supply chain in an all-round way, shortening the production cycle and speeding up the delivery of products.

The newly completed French leather workshop is the first LV leather workshop with a completely new production system. According to the women's wear daily, to maximize efficiency, the workshop's production line will be divided into three parts: leather cutting, preparation and sewing. Women based craftsmen will sit on a mobile workstation; the mobile workstation allows the craftsmen to carry out mobility work for changing orders, and the craftsmen have more freedom to manage themselves at work.

In addition, LV leather workshops in other areas have been reformed to a certain extent, including reducing plant internal segregation, reorganizing work processes, and changing management systems.

Michael Burke introduces that at present, a leather bag of the brand can be completed and delivered to stores within two weeks.

"The focus of luxury business is that all products can be customized. We can never achieve it, but it is clear that this is the direction of market efforts. " Burke said, "personalized luxury" is not finding what everyone wants, but "once they tell you what they want, how fast can you get them?"

The workshop of the Bo Lai leather workshop on Lai Yong river covers an area of sixty-five thousand square feet, about 6039 square meters, and can accommodate 300 leather workmen. Louis Vuitton plans to recruit 200 craftsmen before the end of this year.

The craftsmen who work in this new factory are also given higher requirements. The chosen craftsman must pass the test of dexterity, coordination and three-dimensional vision, because some of the more difficult stitching work must rely on the assistance of the machine. It is reported that about half of the selected craftsmen did not have leather manufacturing experience before.