Hermes International : Hermès continues to invest in employment and its production capacities, laying the foundation stone for the Maroquinerie de la Sormonne (Ardennes)

Paris, September 24th, 2021

HERMÈS CONTINUES TO INVEST IN EMPLOYMENT AND ITS PRODUCTION CAPACITIES, LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE FOR THE MAROQUINERIE DE LA SORMONNE (ARDENNES)

This new manufacture, Hermès' twenty-first leather goods workshop, located in Tournes and Cliron (Ardennes), will open its doors in 2023, ultimately accommodating 250 artisans trained in the house's exceptional know-how.

The maroquinerie de la Sormonne will be the second site in Hermès' Leather Goods & Saddlery Ardennes hub, alongside the maroquinerie des Ardennes in Bogny-sur-Meuse, which was inaugurated in 2004. Hermès thus reaffirms its anchors in Ardennes, leveraging local partnerships in Charleville-Mézières employment agency (Pôle Emploi) for recruiting new artisans, and with the Greta adult education organisation and the Charles de Gonzague Charleville-Mézières high school for their training. From February 2022, training will take place at the École Hermès des Savoir-Faire, which, as part of its partnership with the French National Education Department, will also carry out the assessments required for the artisans to achieve the CAP Maroquinerie vocational diploma in leatherwork.

The close proximity of the two Ardennes manufactures promotes the sharing of the saddler-leatherworker's métier culture and the acquisition of the unique Hermès know-how needed to make bags and objects in leather.

Located in a business park across the municipalities of Tournes and Cliron, the architectural project for the Maroquinerie de la Sormonne, designed by the Lille-based architects Coldefy & Associés, supports the environmental ambitions of the Hermès group. In order to limit its energy consumption, the site will incorporate 2,000 m2 of solar panels and aims to achieve E4C2 certification as a Positive Energy Building. To preserve the site's biodiversity, Hermès is working with environmental experts to protect the habitat of the forty protected species of birds and amphibians that live nearby.

Since 2010, Hermès has opened nine leather workshops in France, bringing the number of saddler- leatherworkers employed by the group to more than 4,000.

Two other new leather workshops are in the pipeline, located in Louviers (Eure) and Riom (Puy-de Dôme), for which recruitment and training are ongoing.

Since 1837, Hermès has remained faithful to its artisan model and its humanist values. The freedom to create, the constant search for beautiful materials, the transmission of savoir-faire of excellence, and the aesthetic of functionality all forge the singularity of Hermès, a house of objects created to last. An independent, family owned company, Hermès is dedicated to keeping the majority of its production in France through its 51 workshops and production sites and to developing its network more than 300 stores in 45 countries. The group employs almost 17,000 people worldwide, including nearly 10,600 in France, among whom more than 5,600 are craftsmen*. Axel Dumas, a sixth-generation family member, has been Hermès CEO since 2013.

Founded in 2008, the Fondation d'entreprise Hermès supports projects in the areas of artistic creation, training and the transmission of savoir-faire, biodiversity, and the preservation of the environment.

* As of 30 June 2021