Hermès doesn’t intend to change pricing policy

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Jun 3, 2015

During Hermès general shareholders meeting held on June 2 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, attendees requested clarification as regards to the luxury fashion house’s pricing policy. 

Due to exchange rate fluctuations, prices in certain geographical regions have sometimes suffered significant variations. With the plunge of the euro, for example, the price gap has been strongly accentuated in China, the label’s products costing up to 60% more than those sold in Europe.

In March, Chanel was the first to announce efforts to make its prices more uniform in order to reduce these discrepancies, its lead soon followed by other brands. Hermès, meanwhile, doesn’t intend to pursue this strategy. 

Hermès policy of annual pricing reduces the impact of the euro’s current weakness, explained CEO Axel Dumas during the meeting. The house also believes that prices should reflect production costs, particularly the costs of production in France, where its famous Birkin and Kelly bags are manufactured. 

"This is why we aren’t pursuing a policy of lowering prices in certain regions, while increasing them in France, as this would imply an artificial increase in prices for our French customers," he said. 

To cope with the decline of the euro, the brand will, "probably make some adjustments in Asia, while maintaining [its] decision to increase prices by 4% in 2015," he said. 

In Japan, where VAT is going to increase, Hermès will also make some adjustments.