Luxury fashion brand Hermès will pay out a one-time year-end bonus of €4,000 (approximately Rs 3.5 lakh) to each of its 19,700 employees globally amid surging sales and profits.
The Paris-based design firm specialises in leather goods, fashion accessories, home decor, jewellery, timepieces, ready-to-wear, and lifestyle products.
Background
The bonus will be paid at the end of February.
It follows a 6% increase in salaries of employees based in France in 2022 and the 100-euro (approximately ₹ 9,000) increase granted in January 2022 and renewed the following July.
The bonus is part of the “value sharing” policy and coincides with an increase in the dividend distributed to shareholders.
Celebrating great performance
It enjoyed exceptional profits in 2022.
Its sales increased by 23 percent to €11.6 billion in 2022 and the net profit reached €3.4 billion.
It also added 2,100 employees to its global headcount with average salaries rising 6 percent.
With all of this it cemented its position as luxury fashion’s third-biggest brand after Louis Vuitton and Chanel.
Safe from China’s Covid situation
Also what helped is that unlike its competition which was negatively impacted by the Covid flare in China, Hermes stayed untouched.
It saw a jump in sales in the fourth quarter.
“We have not had a decline in traffic in China in our stores,” CEO Axel Dumas was quoted.
“Equivalent of 17 months’ salary”
The bonus is part of the “value sharing” policy and coincides with an increase in the dividend distributed to shareholders.
Dumas stated that the 12,400 Hermes employees in France will receive the equivalent of 17 months’ salary annually, including profit-sharing and incentive bonuses.
Recruitment
He also unveiled plans to maintain recruitment with the inauguration of 2 new manufacturing sites in France.
The brand said it created 2,100 jobs in one year, including 1,400 in France and Its workforce has doubled over the last 10 years.
