From the outside, the factory-like wooden facade has no acronym on the front. The Hermès factories are discreet, even if in the green Périgord, everyone knows they are there. The luxury brand employs over 400 people in Nontron. Half for leather goods, for the famous bags and other wallets. And the other at CATE, the tableware and enamel company, in the former Adidas factory, which closed in the 1990s.
A recruitment forum Thursday in Périgueux
Hermès is organizing a recruitment forum to find 40 new workers for its tableware and jewelery factory on Thursday March 31 at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Coulounieix-Chamiers. It is a lesser known activity of the luxury brand, which represents around 10% of its activity. But demand has exploded since the pandemic. Last year, it has already recruited around thirty craftsmen.
– Photo courtesy of Hermès
The know-how is prestigious. This luxury enamel tableware and jewelery is sold all over the world, for a few hundred euros a trivet. However, Hermès recruits without looking at qualifications: “There is no targeted profile when we are looking for candidates to join us. We are the ones who train the craftsmen ourselves in our workshops”explains Olivier Bertrand, the director of the site.
Hermès recruits without a diploma or experience
At the end of the last century, when the factory opened, Hermès sought out the know-how from the Limoges porcelain makers. Today, the technique is passed on from craftsman to craftsman, inside the huge white-walled workshop, refurbished in 2020. We see women in white coats, bent over their worktops.
There is almost no sound, except that of Marianne’s paint gun, which applies the enamel to the porcelains: “Me, I come from a supermarket. I was not at all into anything artistic, but all the know-how I have, I learned it here”, she said, getting ready to work on a potty for the bathroom. Behind, a worker is leaning over a coffee cup, “we apply a chromo [une décalcomanie] with a yellow and white checkerboard”, with a sponge and an eraser. The gesture is precise. Romy is 43 years old, she has been working at CATE for only a few months.
– Photo courtesy of Hermès
Until last year, she was in the wood business of her strapping husband, in the Nontronnais. She completely changed her life: “I love it here. I love it. Me, this job made me dream. I had to stop my previous job because I had developed an allergy to chestnut. I applied here without believing it, I told myself that it was necessary to have done incredible studies, and in fact not. It’s accessible to everyone.”
Each object is unique, signed by the craftsman
“We mainly look at whether people are curious, if they want to learn”, confirms Olivier Bertrand. Recruitment is done through an aptitude test, on “skills and know-how”. We won’t know much more, “the important thing is to see if the candidates know how to recognize and learn from their mistakes, and obviously, you have to be meticulous”.
– Photo courtesy of Hermès
Here each piece is unique, each worker is proud of her work. Virginie, in her forties, a former hairdresser, is writing her little signature under the dish she has just decorated: “It’s a musical note. It’s rewarding, to see the finished product, and to say to yourself: ‘It’s me who did it’. It’s still an excellent product.”. The saucer, sold at a high price, will perhaps end up on the table of an emir or a sultan at the end of the world.
To apply, you can send an email (until the last moment) to the address [email protected]. A personalized appointment with the precise schedule will be confirmed to them by return email.