原文標題：LVMH finds making Louis Vuitton bags messy in Texas
原文連結：https://tinyurl.com/377s9pfu
發布時間：Thu, April 10, 2025 at 1:04 PM GMT+8
記者署名：By Tassilo Hummel and Waylon Cunningham
原文內容：
ALVARADO, Texas / PARIS (Reuters) -Six years ago, LVMH's billionaire CEO
Bernard Arnault and President Donald Trump cut the blue ribbon on a factory in
rural Texas that would make designer handbags for Louis Vuitton, one of the
world’s best-known luxury brands.
But since the high-profile opening, the factory has faced a host of problems
limiting production, 11 former Louis Vuitton employees told Reuters. The site
has consistently ranked among the worst-performing for Louis Vuitton globally,
“significantly” underperforming other facilities, according to three former
Louis Vuitton workers and a senior industry source, who cited internal
rankings shared with staff.
The plant’s problems – which haven’t previously been reported – highlight
the challenges for LVMH as it attempts to build its production footprint in
the U.S. to avoid Trump’s threatened tariffs on European-made goods.
“The ramp-up was harder than we thought it would be, that’s true,” Ludovic
Pauchard, Louis Vuitton’s industrial director, said in an interview on Friday
in response to detailed questions about Reuters findings.
The Texas site, situated on a 250-acre ranch, has struggled due to a lack of
skilled leather workers able to produce at the brand’s quality standards, the
three former workers told Reuters. “It took them years to start making the
simple pockets of the Neverfull handbag,” one source familiar with operations
at the plant said, referring to the classic Louis Vuitton shoulder tote bag.
Errors made during the cutting, preparation and assembly process led to the
waste of as many as 40% of the leather hides, said one former employee with
detailed knowledge of the factory’s performance. Industry-wide, typical waste
rates for leather goods are generally 20%, a senior industry source said.
Several former employees who spoke to Reuters described a high pressure
environment. To boost production numbers, supervisors routinely turned a blind
eye toward methods to conceal defects, and in some cases encouraged them,
four former employees told Reuters.
Pauchard acknowledged there had been such cases in the past, but said the
issue had been resolved. “This dates back to 2018 and one particular manager
who isn’t part of the company anymore,” he said.
Poorly-crafted handbags deemed unfit for sale are shredded on-site and carted
away in trucks for incineration, two of the sources with knowledge of the firm
’s supply chain said.
A former production supervisor who often travelled to the site, said Louis
Vuitton mostly used the Texas plant for less sophisticated handbag models,
producing its most expensive products elsewhere.
Pauchard, Louis Vuitton's industrial director, said the company was being “
patient” with “a young factory.”
“Any bag that goes out of it must be a Louis Vuitton bag, we make sure it
meets exactly the same quality,” he said. “I am not aware of any kinds of
issues suggesting the quality coming from Texas is any different from that
coming from Europe.”
MADE IN USA
Perched behind a hill, the handbag maker's two production facilities were
built on grounds near grazing cattle and a gas well. Louis Vuitton named the
site Rochambeau in tribute to a French general who fought in the Revolutionary
War.
Workers at the site make components and entire models of Louis Vuitton
handbags like Felice pochettes and Metis bags – with "Made in USA" tags
inside. The items sell for around $1,500 and $3,000 at high-end boutiques.
LVMH declined to comment when asked which handbag models are fully or
partially made in Texas but former workers interviewed by Reuters mentioned
the Carryall, Keepall, Metis, Felice and Neverfull handbag lines among the
plant's products.
In its marketing material, Louis Vuitton says its handbags - typically made at
French, Spanish or Italian leather ateliers by artisans known as "petites
mains” - are assembled using a process that it has perfected since the mid
19th century. After cutting canvas and leather using hand tools and laser-
cutting machines, they stitch pieces together using industrial sewing machines
.
Workers at the Texas facility, which includes dedicated floors for cutting and
for assembly as well as a warehouse, were initially paid $13 per hour. As of
2024, base pay for a leather worker position at the plant was $17 per hour,
according to two people who recently applied for positions. The minimum wage
in Texas is $7.25 an hour.
A former leather worker who arrived as a migrant in the U.S. some years before
, said she felt proud when she was hired by the prestigious French brand, but
said some workers struggled to meet the brand’s quality standards and
production targets.
"We were under a lot of pressure to make the daily goals," said the former
worker, who left the factory at the end of 2019.
Another person who worked at the facility until 2023 said she cut corners,
like using a hot pin to “melt” canvas and leather to conceal imperfections
in a particularly difficult piece called the Vendome Opera Bag.
Another former leather worker said they’d seen people melt material to hide
holes or other imperfections in stitching.
Damien Verbrigghe, Louis Vuitton’s international manufacturing director,
conceded some at the Texas plant had chosen to change jobs or leave because of
its stringent quality requirements.
“There are artisans that we hire, who we train and who, after several weeks,
or months, realize in light of the expectations, the level of detail that is
required, they would rather work in other fields like logistics,” he said. “
Some people chose to leave us, because it’s true that it’s a job that
requires a lot of savoir faire.”
Three former workers at the plant said they received between two and five
weeks of training. A current Louis Vuitton employee in France said receiving
just a few weeks of training wasn't unusual as most learning happens on the
production line supervised by more experienced craftspeople.
"Knowledge of sewing on leather/canvas is a plus, but not required. We offer
comprehensive training,” the company said in a job posting for artisan
positions in Alvarado published on its website in January.
Verbrigghe said training in Texas is “exactly the same program that we have
in all our workshops,” that is, six weeks on the training line, where new
artisans do nothing but learn basic operations and skills before going on to
train on the assembly line. There, he said, they are “accompanied and
continuously mentored by trainers.”
TAX BREAKS
LVMH got a host of tax breaks and incentives from Johnson County, including a
10-year, 75% property tax cut, promising the company an estimated $29 million
in savings. ”We look forward to serving this exceptional company,” wrote the
county’s top executive, Roger Harmon, in 2017 correspondence seen by Reuters
.
In its 2017 application letter for the tax abatement, obtained by Reuters
through records request, LVMH said it was aiming to hire 500 people within the
first five years of the plan. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2019, Arnault
said, “We will create approximately 1,000 high-skilled jobs here at
Rochambeau over the next five years.”
Three former staffers, however, said headcount stood at just under 300 workers
in February 2025, a figure Verbrigghe confirmed.
The White House did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Pauchard said initial recruitment difficulties were largely due to the COVID-
19 pandemic and the lockdown that followed, adding that a decline in local
demand also played a role.
Despite the problems, LVMH is planning to move even more jobs to Texas. LVMH
said in its 2017 filing that its first Texas production facility would cost
around $30 million. A second filing from 2022 to local authorities put the
cost of its second workshop, completed last year, at $23.5 million.
At a town hall last fall, workers at one of two California production sites
were told that it would close 2028 and they could move to Texas or quit,
according to a former employee who was present.
Pauchard confirmed the town hall and said Louis Vuitton intended to streamline
its California operations and transfer more skilled artisans to Texas - with
so far limited success. Its executives, he said, “underestimated the fact
that Texas is far away from California.”
心得/評論：
LVMH 在德州製造 LV 包包困難重重
六年前，LVMH 的億萬富豪執行長伯納·阿爾諾（Bernard Arnault）與時任總統唐納·川
普一同在德州鄉間為 Louis Vuitton 的工廠剪綵，該廠預定要為這個全球知名的奢侈品
牌製造手提包。
然而，自從這場高調開幕以來，該工廠生產遇到種種問題。11 名前 Louis Vuitton 員工
向《路透社》透露，這座工廠在全球 LV 工廠中一直排名墊底，表現「明顯」落後其他廠
區。據三名前員工與一位高階業內人士指出，這些數據來自內部績效排名。
此問題突顯 LVMH 在美國建立製造據點時所面臨的挑戰，這原本是為了應對川普對歐洲製
商品威脅徵收關稅的政策。
Louis Vuitton 工業總監 Pauchard 承認：「生產提升比預期困難，這是真的。」
這座位於 250 英畝牧場上的德州工廠缺乏熟練的皮革工人，導致產品無法符合 LV 的品
質標準。有知情人士說：「他們花了幾年才學會製作 Neverfull 包內的簡單口袋。」
切割與組裝過程中的失誤，導致多達 40% 的皮料被浪費（業界平均為 20%）。
有些主管甚至縱容員工掩蓋瑕疵。四名前員工說，工人使用熨燙針燙平缺陷，或是「融化
」皮革來掩飾瑕疵。品質不佳的包包會當場被粉碎後焚毀。
Pauchard 表示這種情況發生在 2018 年，當時的一位主管已離職。
工廠主要生產較簡單的款式，較高價產品則由其他地區製作。Pauchard 表示他們會「耐
心等待」這座「年輕的工廠」進步，並強調每個出廠的包包都符合 LV 的品質。
這座位於小丘後方的廠區，名為「Rochambeau」，紀念法國獨立戰爭中的將軍。工人製作
如 Felice、Metis、Neverfull 等包款，內部標示為「美國製」。這些包在精品店售價約
在 1500 至 3000 美元之間。
工廠工人起薪最初為每小時 13 美元，2024 年升至 17 美元，而德州法定最低工資為 7.
25 美元。
一名前皮革工人表示，當初被這家法國品牌聘用時很驕傲，但不少同事無法達到生產與品
質標準。另一人透露，她曾使用熱針融化布料來掩蓋缺陷。
LV 製造總監 Verbrigghe 承認，不少工人因為品質要求太高而選擇轉行。他說：「我們
訓練後，有些人發現這份工作需要過高的技術與細節，選擇改行。」
三名前員工說他們僅接受 2 至 5 週的訓練。LV 表示德州的訓練跟其他廠區相同，皆為
6 週入門訓練加上師徒制。
LV 還獲得 Johnson 郡為期 10 年、75% 的房產稅減免，估計省下 2900 萬美元。
LV 承諾五年內僱用 500 人，2019 年剪綵時承諾創造 1000 個工作機會，但截至 2025
年 2 月僅有不到 300 名員工。
雖然工廠問題不少，但 LVMH 仍打算擴大德州產能。原本預算 3000 萬美元興建第一座工
廠，第二座則於 2023 年完工，耗資 2350 萬美元。
根據一名前員工，LV 計劃於 2028 年關閉加州某廠，讓工人搬至德州或自行離職。
Pauchard 證實此計畫，並坦言「低估了德州與加州的距離」。
****
川普在前一任的任期就在玩
製造業回流美國Bring Manufacturing Back / Made in USA這事
理論上這政策對於振興美國的藍領就業、降低對中國等地供應鏈的依賴確實有幫助
But
人生中最厲害就是這個But
理想常常很美好，現實總是很骨感
這一任利用關稅又玩一次這事
您各位覺得玩不玩得起來？
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