Do we like them?

Do we like Hermès?

French luxury house making leather goods (Birkin, Kelly), silk, watches and perfume; based in Paris, founded 1837.

Our score: 7 out of 10. Mostly yes. It makes things to last, hires lots of people and shares the money with staff. The reptile-skin sourcing is the big stain, and we'd want that cleaned up.

Hermès started in 1837 as a harness and saddle maker. It is still run by the founder's family: Axel Dumas, a sixth-generation member, has been boss since 2014. It is listed in Paris, but the family keeps control. Dumas persuaded around 100 relatives to pool their shares to see off a takeover bid from LVMH's Bernard Arnault.

Hermès says its output is capped by how many trained artisans it has. It opens roughly one leather workshop a year, each with about 250 to 300 people. The company reported 27,107 staff at the end of June 2026, 16,656 of them in France. It also runs its own craft schools.

On pay, Hermès says it gave all staff worldwide a €3,000 bonus for 2025 and a €120 monthly rise for everyone in France. These figures come from the company's own results, so they are its claims, not an outside audit.

The dark side is exotic skins. In 2021 PETA published a video of abuses at an Australian crocodile farm linked to Hermès, and WWD reported on it. Hermès says it has a very strict animal welfare policy on reptile farms. PETA is still campaigning. In 2015 Jane Birkin asked for her name to come off the croc version of the bag.

On legal drama: a California judge threw out, with prejudice, an antitrust suit over how Birkins are sold. A law firm says it is investigating whether Hermès kept tariff-driven price rises, but no suit has been filed. We'd back it, with the croc question hanging over it.