Charleville-Mézières, France - Hermès opened its twenty-second French leather goods workshop Friday in the Ardennes region bordering Belgium.

The 5,700 square-metre facility is set to employ some 250 artisans trained at the brand’s leather-working school in nearby Charleville Mézières.

In recent years, Hermès has accelerated the pace at which it opens new workshops and training centres in response to robust demand for its leather goods, which has long exceeded supply. The move follows the opening of a new leather goods workshop in Normandy last month, and the brand has announced plans to open 4 more factories by 2027. The company’s annual revenues rose 23 percent excluding currency swings to €11.6 billion ($12.6) in 2022, with handbags and saddlery accounting for 43 percent of sales.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new workshop, CEO Axel Dumas saluted the work of artisans who continue to fabricate each bag from A to Z, using traditional methods and shunning assembly lines.

”You have a savoir-faire that makes people all over the world dream,” Dumas said. “We do a lot of quality control, we check, but what’s essential — the real quality control of Hermès — is the pride of the person who makes the bag. ”

Local political leaders called the workshop a “glimmer of hope” for the Ardennes economy, which has coped with factory closures and deindustrialisation for decades.

Hermès is on track to hit sales of €13.7 billion this year, analysts at UBS estimate. Earlier this year the brand’s valuation on the Paris Bourse crossed €200 billion for the first time, surpassing U.S. sportswear giant Nike to become the world’s second-most valuable listed fashion company after LVMH.