Editor’s Note
This article details the strategic expansion of LVMH-owned fine jewelry manufacturer Orest, which has officially established a permanent second production site in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, solidifying its footprint across the Vosges Mountains.
Having outgrown its workshops in Erstein, Alsace (Bas-Rhin), fine jewelry manufacturer Orest crossed the Vosges mountain range three years ago with the aim of establishing a second production site on the Lorraine side, in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (Vosges). This subsidiary of the French luxury giant LVMH has now made this second location permanent by constructing its own facility, which was inaugurated on Wednesday, March 6.
The mid-sized company (ETI), with 750 employees and a turnover of 110 million euros in 2023, injected 7.5 million euros into the project. Two-thirds of the investment went towards the construction of 2,800 m² of brand new, highly secure premises. The remaining third was dedicated to acquiring equipment: setters’ and jewelers’ workbenches, precision tools (binocular microscopes, laser pointers…), laser engraving machines, and a rhodium plating line designed to prevent oxidation by applying a layer of rhodium.
Denis de Becker, President of Orest, believes that:
and emphasizes that:
A lost-wax foundry will be added to the facilities in June 2024.
The Vosges-based factory has become “the relay for Orest’s growth, which has been progressing at an average rate of +15% in turnover per year for the past seven years,” continues the executive. Currently employing 200 people, the workshops delivered last May are expected to welcome an additional hundred employees by the end of 2024. To train the skilled workforce it needs, the company has partnered with Aurigane, another local jewelry manufacturer. Together, in autumn 2023, they launched a jewelry qualification certificate in partnership with the UIMM Lorraine training center and the Grand-Est region.
The company, positioned in the fine jewelry segment (from 1,000 to 50,000 euros per piece), is associated under the holding company Platinum Invest with BD Product, a specialist in precious metal machining in Mamirolle (Doubs), as well as with the high jewelry manufacturer Abysse (over 50,000 euros per piece) based in Paris and La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime). The holding company, which totals 1,000 employees (turnover of 150 million euros in 2023), had been owned since 2018 by Andera Partners and Bpifrance. It was sold in September 2023 to the French group LVMH, which is seeking new production means to develop its Tiffany brand in France and Europe.