Editor’s Note
This article highlights a key regional summit in France that connected luxury industry players to foster collaboration and growth. It underscores the strategic role of economic agencies in strengthening high-value sectors through targeted networking and partnership opportunities.
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises organized the Regional Summit of French Craftsmanship on Thursday, December 12, bringing together the main luxury players in the region. This event facilitated meetings between major brands, SMEs, subcontractors, and training centers.
Creating territorial emulation with companies exhibiting contagious growth dynamics in promising, high-value-added markets. This ambition was realized by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises, the region’s economic agency, through the Regional Summit of French Craftsmanship it organized on December 12 at the Hôtel de Région in Lyon.
This day of exchange and networking brought together 500 people working in the high-end and French luxury sector. A valuable event for major houses in textiles (these companies employ over 3,300 people in the region with a turnover exceeding 608 million euros), jewelry, leather goods, and cutlery alike. These players do not always have precise knowledge of the expertise and craftsmanship that exist within the same territory.
The recent example of jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels, which chose to open two new workshops in Dorat, near Thiers (Puy-de-Dôme) and in Romans-Sur-Isère (Drôme), demonstrates the attractiveness the Region is striving to maintain and develop. A win-win logic for companies that, on one hand, wish to sustain their growth by defending and preserving their trades, and on the other hand, for communities that are reindustrializing their territories by ensuring economic dynamism.
But underlying this mechanism lies the challenge of training, fundamental for transmitting know-how and recruiting to ensure innovation and the longevity of companies. This is why Van Cleef & Arpels gathered nearly 3,000 visitors during its “De mains en mains” (From Hands to Hands) operation last November at the Intercontinental Lyon – Hôtel Dieu, opening its workshops to middle school students, university students, and career changers.
The next edition will take place, and for the first time in Clermont-Ferrand, from February 12 to 16, 2025. A similar approach for Louis Vuitton (six sites in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), which is also preparing a similar event in February 2025. Hermès, like other major textile brands, has its own school, with 650 people currently in training, with the goal of perpetuating its know-how.
Paradoxically, these big names in luxury suffer from an image deficit, particularly among young people who do not always know the trades practiced there. Historical and excellent trades that are being reinvented through innovation but also through well-trained collaborators.