Louis Vuitton’s Factory Expansion Will Cut Handbag Production Time Down To One Week

Louis Vuitton is opening two new factories in France in order to meet the growing demand for its leather goods, and to cut production time down on internal orders to one week.

The French house, which is the biggest earnings driver within the LVMH stable, is planning to hire 500 people for two sites in western France. The first will open in July 2018, the second in early 2019, with a third opening predicted by 2020, Louis Vuitton industrial director, Emmanuel Mathieu, told Business of Fashion.

By early 2019 Louis Vuitton will have 16 French leather workshops and around 4,000 leather goods specialists. The expansion will enable store managers to react to sales trends and deliver handbags within a week of internal orders coming in. The current production time is two weeks.

 "When we launch a new product we can adapt very quickly to demand," Mathieu explained of the 250 specialists that will work on one bag within a factory.

Though Louis Vuitton trades off its "Made in France" appeal, the brand does have several factories elsewhere in order to keep lead times on all goods down to a minimum. Two California plants cater to the US market with another planned for Texas, while workshops in Catalonia and production facilities in Portugal and Romania bolster its European offering.

News of the brand’s expansion come just days after it announced Virgil Abloh as artistic director of the menswear division. Appointing fashion’s latest luxury streetwear phenomena to take the helm is not only a step in the right direction for diversity, his designs will speak to a new generation.