This company gave a bonus of Rs 3.5 lakh to each of its 19,700 employees

French luxury group Hermes Chief Executive Axel Dumas poses in the Hermes Faubourg Saint-Honore store in Paris.

French luxury brand Hermès has decided to pay a one-time year-end bonus of €4,000 (approximately Rs 3.5 lakh) to each of its 19,700 employees globally amid surging sales and profits. The bonus will be paid at the end of February, reports said.

The announcement of the bonus follows the 6 percent increase in salaries of employees based in France in 2022 and the €100 (approximately Rs 8,700) increase granted in January last year and renewed in July, French publication Le Monde reported.

Hermes specialises in leather goods, fashion accessories, and lifestyle products.

At a meeting with analysts last week, CEO Axel Dumas presented the year-end bonuses and stated that the 12,400 Hermes employees in France will receive the equivalent of 17 months' salary annually, including profit-sharing and incentive bonuses.

The company stated that the payment of this bonus is part of the "value sharing" policy and goes hand in hand with an increase in the dividend distributed to shareholders.

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In 2022, the brand known for its hand-sewn handbags, earned €11.6 billion in sales, or 23 percent more than in 2021, Business of Fashion reported. This allowed Hermes to reclaim its position as luxury fashion’s third-biggest brand after Louis Vuitton and Chanel.

Moreover, while Hermes's competitors were hurt by the Covid flare in China, it left them unaffected. "We have not had a decline in traffic in China in our stores," Dumas was quoted as saying by Le Monde.

According to the publication, the brand said it created 2,100 jobs in one year, including 1,400 in France. Its workforce has doubled over the last 10 years.

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