Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. We're delighted to be with you once again in this stunning Salle Pleyel for the combined general meeting of Hermès International. As you know, the assembly will vote on financial year 2025, which once again, was a year with exceptional performance for us, despite the political and economic environment that has become more tense. I should like to thank all the members of the Supervisory Board who are here with us, and also greet Mrs. , who you don't know, who is ready to join the Board, and who you will be called upon to elect later on. She is here in the room with us, and if you'll allow me, I'd like to give you a quick overview of her career.
She started as a business lawyer and then joined Capgemini, where she held strategic positions for more than 30 years, including as Head of Tax, Head of Corporate Finance, Head of Treasury and Investor Relations, and then Deputy CFO until 2015. From 2016 to 2019, she was Executive Director, Business Platforms, as they say in French. Since 2019, she's been heading Capgemini Ventures, a vehicle focusing on investment in emerging technologies and innovation. I'd like to thank her once again for taking up our call and agreeing to put her name in the ring. Without further ado, can I suggest we move on to appointing the bureau? I shall appoint as tellers the two shareholders with the largest number of votes. First of all, Mrs. Julie Guerrand, representing H51, and Etienne Puech , representing H2. Both of them have agreed to take on these duties.
Mr. Nicolas Huonic, Company Secretary, will be the Secretary for the meeting. Can I remind you also that the full tally of shareholders, of votes, and the attendance sheet is something that Uptevia, our contractor, will be writing up for us. As it stands, we already have a quorum, seeing as we had more than 81% quorum some 20 minutes ago. The assembly can therefore rightfully sit and take decisions. The final state of the attendance sheet will be produced at 10:00 A.M., and you will be told of it before we move on to the resolutions. The statutory auditors and the representatives of the Social and Economic Committee are here with us in the room, and Mrs. Stéphanie Huyghues , bailiff, is here to make sure that everything runs smoothly and legally.
As in previous years, the meeting is being filmed and broadcast and will be available on the website for a whole year. You can access it on Hermès Finance website. The bundle of documents here combines all the documents that are to be made available to the members of the assembly under statutory obligations. These were also sent to the shareholders and to the statutory auditors or made available to them. This being said, can I greet and thank the shareholders for coming, thank them for waiting with us before we got started earlier this morning, and thank them for attending and taking part in the general meeting. It's always a great pleasure for us to meet up with you and share our results. Mr. Henri-Louis Bauer, Chairman of the Management Board of Hermès, will speak.
[Non-English content] Dear shareholders, welcome to this general meeting. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you for your confidence and your loyalty. We are delighted to confirm that in 2025, we had an excellent performance. Look at the numbers. This clearly shows the enthusiasm of our clients for our creations, the quality of our products, and the commitment of our staff and the robustness of our strategy. This is all the more remarkable as the world is becoming more complex. In 2025, and this seems to be the case for this year, the environment became much more tense, and included global geopolitical threats. Hermès is facing this with determination. Three things make us very specific. First of all, the course we steer, the exceptional men and women who are with us, and our determination to work in the long run.
First of all the cost we stay at. We know at Hermès that we have a strong ambition, the ambition to grow, to last, to go on innovating without ever giving up on our values of quality, creativity, responsibility, and sustainability. When the waters get choppy, we know we have to stay the course. In this uncertain global environment, our strength is precisely our attitude and our course over the years. Can I, in this respect, pay tribute to Axel Dumas and all the members of the executive management? It is a great opportunity and chance for us. Thank you very much. Something else that is very specific to Hermès. We have exceptional men and women with us. Indeed, our strength is all about our craftsmen, our creators, these people who have skills and talents. Year- after- year, they help create unique objects and produce timeless pieces and create new projects with ever-renewed high expectations.
We can count on them. This year, again, we were able to see it. We had the skills prize, which is an in-house competition, which rewards every three years, the craftsmen who are able to replicate an old or ancient piece whose skills have disappeared. This is always impressive. As concerns skills, still, we recently paid tribute to Véronique Nichanian, who, after 37 years with us, signed off her final collection in January with a fashion show in Paris and Tokyo. This was a very strong and emotional moment. She has indeed, since 1988, been with us for men's ready-to-wear. Thank you so very much, Véronique. We are also lucky to be able to rely on high-quality staff who are so committed to us. Their pride, their prosperity are a great reward to us. You know that when you join Hermès, you often stay for a long time.
It's always a great pleasure to welcome new staff, as we did this year by creating more than 1,300 jobs across Hermès, 60% or more of which were in France. Recognizing us, learning and passing on is what we do and will go on doing. Can I also mention something else that is so specific to Hermès, our determination to operate in the long term? Our staff, our teams are always trying to innovate, to look at new materials, new colors, new stories, as was the case, for instance, when we told everything about Hermès on stage in a play in Milan in September. This never undermines our fundamental principles. Our values are what we are built upon and help us turn to the future. That is our strength, this determination to go on writing a story. In December, we opened the 12th Hermès know-how schools.
We issued 200 certificates and qualifications in leatherwork, and we are delighted to have trained more than 800 learners. We are committed to this passing on of skills to tomorrow's craftsmen. We are forever thinking about creation to try and give meaning to our professions. We want to be relevant today and turn to the future. How can we be more responsible faced with the scarcity of materials, of water, of energy? How can we stimulate creativity and still be close-sighted? How can we make sure that our heritage is still alive? This is what guides our work, our thoughts, our demands. We do not want to lapse into short-termism, but we want to focus on patience and the long term. Nothing, however, can be done without your trust.
Thank you, our shareholders, for supporting us constantly and forever. Your support is very important. Thank you so very much.
What a great year, 2025. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'm delighted to see you this morning for our general meeting 2026, and I'd like to thank you for your loyalty. Let's take a look back at 2025. 2025 was a robust year for Hermès despite the economic and geopolitical uncertainty, sales reached EUR 16 billion, up 9%. The solid results speak to the success of our collections, our care, our know-how, and our vertical integration.
We continued to invest in our production capacity and to secure our supply chain. We have also grown our exclusive distribution network across the world to support long-term growth. For 2025, our operational investments reached EUR 1.2 billion. We also created jobs and training opportunities. Hermès beefed up its headcount with an extra 1,300 people, 60% of them in France. In keeping with our policy of sharing the benefits of growth, we have given out a EUR 120 pay rise to our employees and a EUR 3,000 bonus to our 26,500 employees for 2025. Every year, our teams find inspiration in the theme of the year. In 2025, it was Drawn to Craft, and with this theme, the 16 métiers of Hermès expressed their creativity there.
Many examples that stand out, for example, in leather goods, we have the So Medor, the Seau Mousqueton, or the Accroche-Cœur that you can see on the screen, which were all very well received. For La Maison, the furniture show in Milan was also a great success, as was the launch of the tableware, Hermès en Contrepoint. The men and women's ready-to-wear collection were also very well received in Paris, but also in Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai. I'd like to warmly thank Véronique Nichanian, who brilliantly contributed to men's ready-to-wear at Hermès across the last 37 years. It was very emotional to see her final collection in January 2026. With her talent and her conviction, she contributed brilliantly to the Men's Universe, and we owe her a great deal. Thank you, Véronique.
Now let's take a look back at 2025. In June, Nadège Vanhée, Artistic Director, Women's Ready-to-Wear, opened the second chapter of her women's collection for fall/winter 2025. Let's take a look at the show that took place in Shanghai.
Merci. Thank you very much. To reinforce our vertical integration, we have continued to invest in our production capacity across all our divisions. We inaugurated our 24th leather workshop at L'Isle-d'Espagnac in 2025 and the 25th in Loupes last week. Construction is underway in Charleville-Mézières and Colombelles. These two leather workshops will be opening in 2027 and 2028. We also announced at the end of January 2026 the setup of a new leather workshop in Les Andelys by 2030. Capacity investments have also increased in other divisions. For example, we launched the construction of the site in Couzeix for tableware, and we have started the extension work for the Le Noirmont site, which makes watches in Switzerland.
We continue to secure our supply chain and to work with our long-standing partners across all of our métiers. Our model rests upon our vertical integration and local anchoring. Indeed, 55% of our objects are made in our own workshops, and 75% of our objects are made in France. We have 63 production and training sites that you can see on this map, and we are very proud to contribute to the emergence of these networks of excellence, and we also support our partners who are trained so as to preserve the unique qualities of Hermès and its creation. For leather goods and saddlery, on average, a new leather workshop opens every year and it employs 300 people and contributes to local dynamism or economic dynamism.
When we open a new site, we look out for three main criteria, the respect of local expertise, creating new jobs, and the protection of know-how. Let's take a look now at the launch and the opening of the L'Isle-d'Espagnac leather workshop.
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It's always very moving when we open a new leather workshop. Now, let's talk about our integrated and exclusive distribution network. True to our multi-local approach, we've continued to grow our network. In the U.S., two new stores were inaugurated in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Nashville, Tennessee. You've got a picture of Nashville actually here on the screen. Among the 15 extension and renovation projects, we have Florence in Italy, Knokke in Belgium, and Macau and Changsha in Greater China. At the end of December 2025, the group had 294 stores and three-quarters of them are self-run. Each store at Hermès has its own story and ties in their story with that of Hermès, the know-how, and the local culture. Now, let's take a look at a film about leather piping in our stores.
Designed as being the first encounter between the client and leather, the first handrail with leather piping was installed in the Lille store in 1998. 27 years later, we renovate this store and breathe new life into this new know-how in our Lille store.
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Now, he worked for us for 40 years, but he didn't only do handrails. He was also a technical director and many different positions. Creation at Hermès also finds its expression in the 17th métier of Hermès, that of communication, in the second half of 2025 with Hermès Stories. We invited the public in Milan to discover the history of Hermès through a theater play. We also organized the Hermès in the Making event in Shenzhen, Istanbul, and Taipei, and it drew in more than 66,000 visitors. In 2025, the eighth collection of fine jewelry called Les Formes de la Couleur was presented in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. Finally, petit h stopped off in Taichung, Seoul, and Vancouver. The creativity of Hermès also finds its expression in our campaigns, like the campaign for our Barénia perfume.
Let's take a look at this campaign.
Let's now take a look at the responsible approach of Hermès. Our model rests upon three pillars, people first, our local anchoring, and our ambitious environmental strategy. True to our model, we paid out EUR 328 million to our employees in 2025, in France, and a bonus for all our employees across the world. Across three years, we have created more than 6,200 jobs, more than half of them in France, a figure that we're particularly proud of. Our commitment to diversity, fairness, and inclusion remain a priority. We have 49% of women in the top 100 positions of Hermès, and we also are committed to the inclusion of people with disabilities. Our efforts are bearing their fruits under our environmental strategy since we have reduced our CO₂ emissions, and we also use fewer resources like water, for example. We continue our commitments.
At the end of 2025, we have 26,500 employees, 62% of which are in France. This growth speaks to our commitment to grow local employment and to value local talents. Hermès has been sharing the fruits of its growth with its employees for several years through free share plans, for example, and we are very proud to have 60% of our employees among our shareholders. Protecting and imparting our know-how is at the heart of our approach. We've opened two new École Hermès des Savoir-Faire in 2025. That brings the total of Hermès schools to 12. They award certificates that are recognized by the Ministry of National Education. We train up to 800 people every year. These training centers are located close to the leather workshops to ramp up our production capacities. Hermès has forever been committed to diversity, fairness, and inclusion.
We also have more than 8% of our employees that are disabled in excess of the legal threshold of 6% in France. We also have many partners in the social economy. Here you can see the strong increase in our headcount. We've multiplied by two our headcount over the last decade. Hermès remains very balanced in its growth. We have a stable balance between divisions and different regions. Our craftspeople make up a large part of our headcount, and most of our craftspeople are outside of large cities, which speaks to our local anchoring. Our staff outside of France are mainly in sales function. Our environmental commitment has led to some practical successes. We've reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 69% since 2018 in excess of our trajectory of -50% by 2030.
Our construction standards have contributed to this decrease, mainly because our buildings are more energy efficient and run on 100% of renewable electricity. That is true across the whole world. Over and beyond that, we've reduced our Scope 3 emissions between 2018 and 2025. We continue also to work alongside our suppliers and partners and help them make progress in this area. We have long-term relationships with these suppliers, on average 21 years. Hermès is very proud to have this strong connection with our partners and sometimes also protecting know-how in far-flung countries, for example, in Kyoto, where we rediscovered an ancient technique called silk marbling.
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I really love this film because we talk about our turnover, our sales and big numbers, but here you have a know-how that is brought back to life and I think it's exciting that we're able to do that as well. In 2025, Hermès continued to organize generous actions across all the regions where we operate. Our foundation has a budget of EUR 61 million for five years, and it rolls out programs around four areas, supporting creation, imparting know-how, protecting the environment, and encouraging solidarity. For example, we have the Manufacto and Manuterra programs to introduce young children to traditional craft and protecting the environment. Over and beyond that, we have 450 charity actions that were performed in 2025 for a total cost of EUR 23 million.
Our employees have taken part either during their working hours, but also outside of work in cultural events and events with local communities. The H cube or H³ program is precisely designed to help our employees take part in these actions. Let's take a look at how it all works.
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My name is Olivier Pechou . I've been with Hermès since 1998. The H cube program is a great initiative from the foundation. It allows Hermès employees to bring forward organizations they would like to support and get it funded through the foundation.
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The Lower East Side Girls Club is a wonderful organization that was founded in 1996, a time where there were three boys' clubs in the Lower East Side and none would accept girls. This part of Manhattan is very interesting because it's so diverse. It has the most disparity in income. The main aim of the Lower East Side Girls Club is to break the cycle of poverty. What that means on a day-to-day basis is to really empower the girls, give them the tools to build a stronger future, and also dream and think of what the future could look like for them. As part of the Girls Club, there's a ton of activities. I was very inspired by the Alphabet City Art School. It's arts, it's crafts, and I think it kind of mixed together a lot of things that are close to the heart of Hermès.
Art has the power to really change people and give them a different take on life.
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Hermès continues to make progress in its non-financial rating, which reflects our model. For example, the double A from MSCI and our position on the A-list by CDP, which makes us a leader across the world on environmental topics. Our ESG approach is consistent and ambitious, and this is an encouragement to continue with our efforts. Now, let's take a look at 2025. The revenue was around EUR 16 billion, up 9% at constant exchange rate and 5.5% at current exchange rate. At the end of December 2025, all the regions and all the divisions, apart from perfume and beauty and watches, recorded strong growth driven by the value strategy of Hermès. In 2025, all regions grew: France, +9%, Europe +11%, recorded good progress driven by the loyalty of local customers and dynamic tourist flows. Japan, +14%, continues on its strong momentum, thanks to its local client base.
Asia, excluding Japan, is at +5%. Good performance across all the countries. America, +12%, a great year for the U.S., but also for the other countries in the region. Finally, the other region, which mainly is made up of the Middle East, is growing or grew by 15%. The geographical breakdown of our revenue is well-balanced. We have an increase for Europe and Japan compared to the previous year. Now, let's take a look at the division breakdown. Leather Goods is at +13% in keeping with its annual objective, driven by the high desirability of our products and the ramp-up of our production capacity. Ready-to-Wear Accessories, +6%, Silk and Textiles, +5% after a good fourth quarter, is making progress with a great diversity of formats and material.
Perfume and beauty is at -8%, but compared to a very good year in 2024, marked by the launch of our new perfume, Barénia. Watches, -2%, after a first difficult half of the year, grew in the second part of the year. Finally, the other métiers are at +11%. The breakdown for the métier is pretty much the same as the previous year, so well-balanced overall.
Éric du Halgouët, our CFO, is now going to walk you through the results.
Good morning, everyone. In 2025, the results were good as they were in 2024. Operating income is up 7%, faster than sales, despite the negative impact of foreign exchange. The net income restated following one-off contribution on large corporations in France is up 5.5%, and CFFO is up 11%. The revenue is now above the EUR 16 billion mark, despite the negative Forex impact of EUR 500 million, mainly due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, the yuan, and the yen compared to the euro. The gross margin is at 71.1% compared to 70.3% in 2024. The negative impact of currency hedging has been offset by an accretive conversion impact and management of our cost increases and an improvement in the sell-through of collections. Communication account for EUR 620 million and represent 3.9% of sales.
At constant exchange rate, it is stable compared to 2024, which was the year when we had started putting Barénia, the fragrance, out. Administrative and general costs are at EUR 3.1 billion, an increase of 5%. The group has increased its staff in the stores to support growth and initiated IT and distribution and logistics projects. Other products and expenses is mainly amortization and accounts for EUR 1 billion. The increase compared to 2024 is the result of the increase in, or speeding up of investment and the increase in the employer contribution for free shares given out to staff for 2023, which now accounts for no longer 20% but 30%. Operating income is EUR 6.6 billion, up 7%. Here you see the current operating profitability over the last five years. Despite the 1 percentage point negative Forex impact, recurring profitability is up 0.5 percentage point to 41% in 2025.
The financial result stands at EUR 207 million compared to EUR 283 million for 2024. It covers a slight decrease in Forex hedging, debt interest, and the remuneration of the treasury, which is EUR 300 million compared to EUR 400 million, given the drop in interest rate. The tax burden in 2025 is due to the one-off increase in France. This surtax of 41.2% accounts for EUR 330 million and is worth a tax increase of five percentage points. The result for associated businesses is EUR 47 million, and as was the case in 2024, it was in fact our shares in the Middle East and more specifically in the United Arab Emirates. The net income group share is therefore EUR 4.5 billion, and restated it is up 5.5%, the same pace as the sales.
Excluding exceptional contributions, net profitability reaches 30.3%, which is the high level we already had in 2024. Between 2015 and 2025, average annual growth rate for revenue and net income was at 13% and 17%, despite the negative Forex impact over the last few years. Over the last five years, revenue has increased 2.5x , and net income, excluding exceptional contributions, was increased by a factor of 3.5x. Operating investments amounted to EUR 1.2 billion, and the group has increased its investments in distribution and the production capacity. EUR 769 million compared to EUR 611 million the previous year were dedicated to securing our strategic positioning or renovating and developing the distribution network and retail network in the U.S. with Scottsdale, Beverly Hills or Nashville, and in Europe, with London and Geneva reopening in June and November, and the Beijing Sanlitun.
226 million was spent on increasing our manufacturing capacity, mainly, in the leather workshops in Charleville-Mézières, Loupes and L'Isle-d'Espagnac, and also in the upstream silk, metals, and houseware divisions. Lastly, EUR 166 million were spent in real estate, digital, and IT. Operating cash flow stands at EUR 5.6 billion, restated, it is up 10% compared to 2024. The change in working capital requirement, as was the case in 2024, only accounts for limited use of cash to the tune of EUR 200 million, thanks to a good management of inventory both in production and in retail. Cash flow from operations is at EUR 5.4 billion and up 11%, excluding exceptional contributions. Having taken into account the operational investment and payment of rents, the available cash flow stands at EUR 3.9 billion. Financial investment is us taking shares in businesses in the broader context of our vertical upstream and downstream integration strategies.
EUR 2.8 billion in dividends were paid out, and we did not buy back any shares outside of the liquidity contract. Taking into account the negative Forex impact, net restated treasury cash stands at EUR 700 million and has increased EUR 700 million and now stands at EUR 12.8 billion. The balance sheet is as was, and as was the case at year-end 2024, cash is more than 50% of equity, EUR 19 billion, and accounts for more than 75% of our liabilities. This will enable us to further our long-term strategy. Thank you for your kind attention.
I always leave the best slides to Éric. Now, let's take a look at the beginning of the year. Sales increased at the beginning of the year, reaching EUR 4.1 billion, up 6%. America, Japan, and Europe, excluding France, enjoy double-digit growth, and Greater China continues to grow. Even if tourist flows have slowed down, the business in the stores of the group are up 7%. The fundamentals of our group is more than ever a differentiating factor. Regarding the outlook, I can tell you that it remains unchanged for the group. In a still uncertain geopolitical context, Hermès is confident about 2026 thanks to its artisanal model, its distribution network, its creativity, and the loyalty of its customers. We continue on this momentum driven by the enthusiasm and creativity of our teams across the world. It is therefore with great determination that we embark on 2026.
The theme of the year, Venturing Beyond, is an invitation to discover new horizons and to continue to be curious. We continue to create jobs in our different divisions, in different regions, and continue to ramp up our production capacity. 2026 will be a dynamic year for our distribution network, with new openings and new extensions in Beijing, in London, and our new maison will be opening on New Bond Street. I'd like to thank our clients across the whole world for trusting us, for being loyal, and thank you also to all our employees, because it is the commitment and the enthusiasm of our employees that make this journey so exciting.
To conclude, I'd like to go back to some of the highlights or a highlight of 2025, the Saut Hermès that drew in more than 17,000 visitors. A reminder that Hermès, we like to jump over obstacles.
Now, before I run through the main resolutions, can I thank very warmly Axel Dumas and Eric du Halgouët for the high quality of their presentation, but also, and maybe more so, for all these achievements. As we've heard, 2025 ended on strong results, which proves and confirms the relevance of our unique development model. Can I, therefore, on behalf of everyone, thank all the members of staff of Hermès across the world for their contribution. Despite the increasingly complex geopolitical situation and the major climate changes, our teams have been able to fuel what we do and support it in creation, quality, and preserving our skills that are so specific to our divisions. The great loyalty of our customers was also the key, or the result of unwavering dedication on behalf of our staff, leading to these great results.
Can I also thank the Executive Management and the Executive Committee for their inspired, enthusiastic, and effective management of the company. Over the course of the year, they were able to preserve lively figures, pull upward, and properly manage, while at the same time preserving the values of Hermès that which we hold dearly too. Can I also thank all of you shareholders for your loyalty, your trust. We are very grateful for this link that has been binding us for so many years. Yes, why don't you clap yourselves?
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we've spoken of this long-term approach. It is too rare nowadays to focus on this, so we have to mention it. The time has come to introduce the main resolutions that you will be called upon to vote upon. Given the agenda for today, and so that we can have a proper discussion, let me outline briefly the resolution. You have read the details in the notice of meeting. Can I tell you also that our quorum is as follows: 86.9%, both--
On the ordinary and the extraordinary side of the meeting. In Resolution number 4, you will be called upon to endorse the allocation of net income, a bit more than EUR 4 billion this year. The Supervisory Board suggests that you set the ordinary dividend at EUR 18 per share. This aims at striking the right kind of balance between a reasonable and recurring payout on the one hand, and paying out the significant cash available. An advanced payment of EUR 5 was paid out on the 8th of February last, and the outstanding amount for ordinary shares will be detached on the 21st of April and payable on the 23rd of April, depending on shareholdings on the 22nd of April in the evening. Resolution 7 to 10 aim at approving the total compensation and other advantages in kind or otherwise given to the company officers for FY 2025.
You will find all this in the notice of meeting, and they are, of course, in line with the compensation policy as agreed by the general assembly. You will remember, the management gets a fixed compensation, indexed on growth of sales, and with a maximum increase of 5%. There is a variable amount related to the consolidated income before tax. Can I also remind you that 10% of this variable amount is subject to reaching a number of CSR criteria. Moreover, management do not get variable multi-year compensation or deferred compensation. The compensation for the Chairman of the Supervisory Board is a fixed amount, which was set at in the general assembly of 2023 and remains at that level. In Resolution 11, you're called upon to approve the compensation policy for Executive Chairman.
The 12th resolution is about the approval of the compensation policy for members of the Supervisory Board. There again, unchanged. Resolutions 13 to 15 are related to the appointment of members of the Supervisory Board, Mrs. Dorothée Altmayer, Mr. Renaud Momméja, and myself. Reappointments. All of them, and I hope this is true of me, brings knowledge of the company that is useful for the work of the Board and their varied professional backgrounds. Their presence also adds to the diversity of the Board, and brings about a wealth of experience, works on parity and professional careers. These terms of office will run until the general assembly held in 2029 on the FY 2028. As you know, a change in the makeup of the Supervisory Board is being suggested.
Indeed, Monique Cohen, an independent member of the Supervisory Board of Hermès International since 2014, and a chairman of the Audit and Risks Committee, sees her term of office expire at the end of our assembly. She is not being put forward for re-appointment, seeing as she will have served 12 years on the 3rd of June, and therefore will lose her status as independent member of the Board under the AFEP-MEDEF code. This is a rule that Hermès International has always strictly abided by, and we are therefore sorry to see her leave the Board. Monique was a useful and valuable assistance and contribution to the Board, bringing to us her expertise, a clear-sighted vision, a humanist and strategic approach, and her commitment has significantly contributed to our success. Through her prestigious and focused work, her integrity and her loyalty, she was the embodiment of Hermès values.
We wish her all the very best and thank her for her dedication and her hard work for the company. Thank you. Given these events, the Supervisory Board, together with the Compensation and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, launched in 2024 a process aiming at identifying potential candidates to take over Mrs. Cohen's position. This means that we can suggest and put forward Mrs. Lucia Sinapi-Thomas. I mentioned her earlier, and you will get more about her up on the screen, and this will be done under Resolution 16. That is, appointment of Mrs. Lucia Sinapi-Thomas as a new member of the Supervisory Board.
Her international experience, her financial and legal expertise, and her understanding of the digital transformation will be a very useful contribution to the Board. Provided you endorse that nomination, Lucia will join the audit committee as the chairman from her very first three-year term.
For the sixth and 17th resolution, we are asking you to renew the authorizations granted to executive management to trade in company shares, with also the ability to cancel them. The maximum price to buy them up, excluding fees, is EUR 3,000 per share. I'd also like to remind you that the buybacks made by the company cover the free share plan that we grant to our employees. Therefore, no share buyback for cancellation has been performed by Hermès for many years. Now for Resolution 18, we are asking you to renew the authorization to be given to executive management to grant free existing shares.
I'd like to highlight that in keeping with the compensation policy of executive management, they receive no compensation through shares. This authorization falls under the group's compensation policy and helps us to support some managers outside the executive management to pay for their retirement and pension scheme. Through Resolution number 19, we are asking you to conform with the Décret n° 2026-94 from February 13, 2026, which changes the record date from day -2 to day -5 . In the universal document that you can also find on our website, you will have the report from the Supervisory Board on corporate governance. It's page 524, at least in the French version. In the convening notice, you will have the report of the Supervisory Board on pages 62 and 63.
It's now time to hear from our chartered accountants who are eager to jump up on stage and share with us the content of their different reports.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, on behalf of the statutory auditors and PricewaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton, I'd like to share with you our findings for 2025. In keeping with what we've done previously with this assembly, I suggest that I sum up the reports that you have in the universal document. Our reports on the consolidated accounts and annual accounts can be found on pages 409-412 and 439-442 of the universal registration document. The objective of our mission is to have a reasonable assurance that there is no significant issue with the accounts. To this effect, we carry out a number of duties covering the whole organization, different métier, different countries.
We've covered, for example, 40 subsidiaries across 20 countries. We've been able to perform these duties in all these countries with no obstacles. We're regularly in touch with the financial department, with the audit and risk department, and the Supervisory Board. The key points and highlights of the audit that we have carried out on risk, in light of their share in the group, their complexity, mainly cover for consolidated accounts, the assessment of inventory and work in progress, and the accounting of currency hedging. For annual accounts, it's mainly about the assessment of equity interest. You will find a description and all the duties that we've performed in our different reports. At the end of our work, we have expressed an opinion with no caveats, no particular observations for consolidated accounts, and no caveats for annual accounts.
Just one observation, since there is a change in accounting method due to the enforcement of a new accounting text that applies to all companies, including your own. Regarding our report on related party agreement, this can be found on pages 507 and 508. Under this report, we share with you the specificities of related party agreements, but we do not issue an opinion on their purpose or on their foundations. We have discovered no authorized agreement that needs to be submitted to your approval. Our report also describes the different agreements that were approved under previous general meetings or by previous general meetings. Finally, we have two reports for the extraordinary part of the meeting. You can find them on pages 510 and 511 of the universal document, and they pertain to the capital and equity of your company.
The first report covers the 17th resolution, i.e., the authorization to be granted to the executive management to reduce the share capital. The second report covers the 18th resolution on the granting of free existing shares. These two reports did not lead to any observations on our side. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, Mr. President, thank you very much for your kind attention.
Well, thank you very much, Christophe Monteux, for taking the floor. We're now going to move on to the Q&A session. I'd like to tell you before that we have received in writing some question in due course, and these questions have been answered by executive management, and you can find these answers on the website Hermès Finance under general meeting. Of course, you can go and read these questions and the answers that were outlined by executive management.
We're now going to have the opportunity to hear from your questions. As per usual, I would like to ask you to introduce yourselves first. Tell us your name, if you're an individual shareholder or if you're representing a company, or if you are indeed a journalist before you ask your question. Finally, I'd like to ask you to be brief in your questions because they are questions, not comments, nor recommendations. Please, keep your questions short so that everybody has a chance to ask their question. You are only allowed one question. Nobody follows these instructions, but nonetheless, I hope that this will help you limit the number of questions and queries. Please be brief in the way in which you ask your questions. As you can see, we have people in the room with microphones and panels.
I suggest that we get started straight away. First come, first served. Number seven.
[Non-English content] Good morning, everyone. James Fraser. I represent PETA. My question is a question to Monsieur Dumas relating to the use of wild animal skins at Hermès, but it will be brief. Crocodiles, ostriches, lizards, and other wild animals are shocked, bled, and then turned into bags and belts. The indignation and the awareness of the public is increasing in the face of these awful practice. The recent trial of Matt Wright has focused the lens of Hermès on the one hand, and the dangerous practice of crocodile egg collection, where nests are raided to fuel the farming. Nick Burns and PLE Farming.
Please let him finish. Heckling from the room. Ask your question.
PLE Farming.
Ladies and gentlemen, please show patience. It is a standard practice. Let us agree with it. Please finish, sir.
I will. PLE Farming. This is one of the largest intensive crocodile farms in Australia, 50,000 animals in concrete beds. The environmental monitoring shows that the E. coli level is 500 times the authorized maximum levels. This has led to warnings from experts as concerns the risk on the environment and human health. Sir, the sale of Hermès hides now operates almost like fast fashion. Tens of thousands of crocodile hides for Birkin bags come from vertically integrated farms, which are highly polluting and put profit over ethics. The question is the following. There is an environmental health and image risk. When will Hermès adjust its practice and cut ties with these practices and move to vegan leather? Thank you.
[Non-English content] Thank you, James. You're often here, so thank you for joining us. Thank you for your consistency. As I have said many times, we fully respect the beliefs of everyone. I don't fully agree with your description of the farms for Hermès. We have the highest scientific standards for animal welfare. We work with vets, we work with the International Crocodilian Farmers Association, and as you know, we operate under the strict rules of the Washington Convention managing and ruling over endangered species. Can I say that in fact, farming was one way of preserving that species of crocodile that wasn't reproducing in the wild very well.
The Washington Convention banning hunting and moving to farming and also combining this with the release of animals in the wild means that there are more crocodiles in the wild than there were in 1980. You tell me if that's a good or bad thing. We are doing our best to abide by the best scientific practices to farm our crocodiles. Many audits are being conducted, and we may and we do stop using some outside suppliers with whom we don't quite agree. Fast fashion, that was a bit of a low bar, isn't it? I mean, you're under the belt maybe. You are right in saying that we have alternative materials and natural materials. We are not opposed to having both.
We still haven't found alternative materials that are luxury for us, and these are very often reliant on petrol-related products. We have invested significantly in a mushrooms-based leather, unfortunately, is very low-key in artisan, and we hope that we can use technology to replicate these leather cells. I know that there's much research already being done on human skin. It's not quite the same here because we're looking at the epidermis and the dermis. We are trying to find exceptional materials, whatever their origin, to manufacture the handsomest products, and I think that is how we can come to your position.
Number eight. Are you raising your placard or not? No? Sorry. Okay. Number three.
Good day. Representative of APAI, the Association for Individual Shareholding. Can we thank the corporate officers of Hermès who, without being upset, agreed to EUR 330 million being paid out rather than working on creating better jobs in-house. First of all, why did you include EUR 500 million in other reserves, thus reducing the distributable amounts? Second question, your supply chains, are they safe and secure? Can you witness today drops in the quality of the supply depending on the quality of feed that the animals get? Lastly, seeing as luxury and high luxury is a long-term approach, what of the market in India? How are you getting on?
The EUR 500 million that was already done in the previous years to increase our equity. As you know, 64% of our staff are also shareholders, so I'm not entirely sure that they would all agree why saying that this was a pointless use and allocation of value when you're talking about the EUR 330 million. I think the rumors in the corridor seem to be pretty positive. Also, it hasn't had a negative impact on the ordinary dividend that I hope you will vote on and for. The issue of materials and the quality of materials. We want to try and industrialize farming to ensure access and quality, and that is true for leather. But there are also difficulties with crop farming, but also with silkworm farming or cashmere harvesting.
I'd say that the more our farming and cattle rearing can be environmentally friendly, biological, organic farming, this will be great. Look at mulberry bushes, for instance. You can't get these in places where there are many pesticides. There's an issue of quality. Our statistics are actually showing also that milk-fed calves give better leather than maize-fed calves. We don't fully manage everything. We've already had a bit of a spat about crocodiles, so let's try and avoid one on cattle farming and calves. India now. India's a very interesting place. We've had a foothold there for a long time already, but our share of sales is very small. Maybe because we're not too good at it, probably, but maybe not. The fact is that there are two difficulties. First of all, the import duties are very high.
We do have a strong Indian customer base, but they don't buy in India much. Most of our Indian customers used to buy their products in the Middle East, where they often go. Unfortunately, that's the fact. Customs duties are a bit of an issue. India also has a very good artisanal companies on fabrics, on jewelry in Jaipur, for instance. India is a great place, and we are going to build our business there and will thrive at a pace that I am still unaware of.
Yes, okay. Mystery is always so important, isn't it?
Number 12. 11, sorry.
Good morning, Florianne Vilbon , individual shareholder. First of all, congratulations for your unbounded creativity. It was a great pleasure to travel by watching these different videos. My question is this: Have you implemented any kind of tool, any kind of process to pick up on dissatisfaction from clients? Do you have any system to pick up on these weak signals of dissatisfactions from your clients?
Well, thank you very much for your compliments on the films, because we do spend quite a lot of time putting them together. To your question, I inherited this from my uncle, Louis Dumas . I read every single complaint letter that we receive from clients. It takes up quite a lot of my time. There's not a lot of these letters, but we have quite a few clients. Proportionately, yes, there are a few.
It takes up some time. Secondly, we also have mystery customers who go to our stores, and their mission, so to speak, is to check the level of customer service and the quality of customer service in the stores. Then we're very lucky in that we have a very loyal customer base, and when they're not happy, we are made aware of that pretty quickly. The salespeople actually will side with them against us. We've got quite a direct contact with our clients, who are very passionate and good connoisseurs of Hermès, and they pay attention to detail, to say the least.
Number three.
Gentlemen, my name is Hervé Delage from the National Association of French Shareholders. My question builds on the question that was asked last year on U.S. tariffs. Tariffs were implemented. You make 75% of your products in France. As you mentioned, your revenue increased in America, + 12%. What lessons do you draw from the implementation of tariffs, and what was the actual rate that was enforced in the U.S. for your products or applied to you?
Well, this is a trickier question because I've been told to not answer what I'm about to say. Everybody talks about tariffs, but tariffs in the U.S., as you saw in Eric's presentation, cost us much less than producing in France and paying this surplus tax. Sorry, I don't think it's the most relevant question. Tariffs increased in the U.S., and we increased our prices in the U.S. to compensate. Éric will give you some more detailed figures if he's allowed to, but these figures cover 2025 and 2026. What happened when tariff increased?
Sometimes we have tariffs of more than 100%. In some countries, it's a bit more complicated to navigate. It's sometimes the case here in some countries. What happens is that our clients react in two ways. First of all, they continue to buy in their stores in their own countries, and you can see that in the figures for the U.S., which is a region that is growing quickly. Sometimes they'll make a good deal by traveling abroad. We have a lot of American tourists who buy in stores outside of the U.S. The tariffs were a bump in the road, but not the biggest bump for Hermès.
Éric approves this answer, so I'll leave it at that. Number two, please.
Individual shareholder, and very proud to be a shareholder of this great company, and happy to be here at this general meeting. Three questions on my side, which might be interesting to other people in the room. A word on Hermès and marketing. How do you manage to not have a marketing department, yet have commercial costs of only 4% in an area where communication is so important?
Second question, Hermès versus the difficult context of the luxury industry. How do you sit in this landscape? What about, for example, the increase in second-hand products, dupes, et cetera, and the Birkin bags that are sold at Walmart? Are you concerned at all? Is it a threat? What about the share price? It's dropped by 27% in one year, so how are you able to keep the morale up when you lose so many billions?
Finally, I'd like to give you also the prize of the best general meeting in Paris. I attend quite a few, and I see that you have a great respect for shareholders, the kind of respect that my mentor, Warren Buffett, would very much appreciate.
Well, thank you very much for these kind comments. We're the first ones to organize a general meeting for this year, so thank you very much for your kind comment. We do have to love our shareholders because most of them are in the family. You've got to love your uncles and aunties, even if they don't always love you back. They're not always very optimistic and not always very focused on keeping the morale up. Nonetheless, you asked three interesting questions. First of all, on marketing. Now, we do have this strategy of being a company that creates first, and people are free to create here at Hermès. We sometimes go a bit too far.
If you don't like the theme of the year, the guilty party sits in the front row, and he might explain the intricacies and the workings behind this theme of the year. Nonetheless, it is quite unique at Hermès in that the creative director is at the ExCo. Indeed, he takes part in all the decision-making at Hermès, and we have a lot of freedom in our creativity. We don't have any marketing plan. We don't look at past demand. We try to invent and create something new. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes less so. This is nonetheless an important part of what we do. The few times where we tried to do marketing, we failed because we're not very good at that. It's probably best not to venture in that direction.
I'm not going to give you any examples, otherwise, it'll be lost on most people. Now back to your second question. We have Charlotte David in charge of communication, who also wants to see an increase in the communication budget. It is true that if I had to sum up the financial results of Hermès, I would say that our number one communication tool is the price points of our products. We have a gross margin which is smaller than others because the production costs are very high. Some of our bags cost more to make than the sale price of bags from our competition. Some companies need more marketing to push these products. We hope that our products speak for themselves, and therefore we spend less on marketing.
Likewise, you talked about our revenue that increased and a fourfold increase of our turnover is great, which means that we have more resources necessary. In actual fact, there are two important topics that you raised, second-hand and counterfeit goods. For the secondary market, I'm not too worried because our clients are loyal, and they want authentic products. Now, for counterfeit goods. Counterfeit goods are actually quite poor quality. Actually, Walmart, when they realized that it was a counterfeit good, they pulled the product off their marketplace. It wasn't actually Walmart, it was on their marketplace. I think that our clients are not interested in counterfeit goods, in dupes. Nonetheless, we do have very good legal teams that fight these counterfeit Hermès products, and they crack down in many countries around the world, and they do a great job. I'd like to thank them for that.
The question that is often asked of us is, there are dupes, there are fakes, there are counterfeit goods. At the same time, people say, "Be careful of AI." We have to respect IP rights. Here when you're doing counterfeit goods and dupes, it's basically stealing IP rights, and any IP right should be protected and respected. That's a very important part of creation. The other message I'd like to get across is on second-hand goods. Now, this is great to some extent because it allows products to have a new lease of life. At Hermès, we repair a lot of our products, and it makes me very happy when we have a granddaughter who brings the Kelly bag of her grandmother to have it repaired, cleaned up, to give it a new lease of life after three generations. It really is very exciting.
Now, there's also a secondary market where people sell Hermès bags at an inflated price. I'm less comfortable with that, obviously. Not very happy that people buy to resell, when we would like or would rather to sell it at a lower price to our clients. There as well, we have a number of ways to counter that. Salespeople tend to trust people who come in the stores, when they probably shouldn't always. Sorry. Now, on the share price. I am very happy with our first quarter. I might be the only one, but I'm very happy with what our teams have done. The last quarter of 2025 at constant exchange rate, we were at +6% to 7%, and now we're at +6% for Q1 2026. There's only a small gap between the two, which is very good, I think.
2025 was a bit difficult with foreign exchange. We lost EUR 0.5 billion because of the drop of some currencies or the increase of the euro itself, either or, depending on what you prefer. Some countries are trying to increase their exports, and if you have a weaker currency, it's great. Now we import a lot of our energy, and the euro is strong, so it costs us a bit less and it kind of offsets. +7% was in fact +9% at current exchange rate. The gap in performance for Hermès is quite small. I'm very proud of that. Now, where there is a risk is it's for the Middle East region. As you saw in the presentation, we recorded +15% last year, and we were growing very quickly in the area before the war started.
For a very long time, our aspirational clients, especially in China, was less dynamic, but we were able to offset that elsewhere. Actually, we always made progress year-over-year in China, unlike our competition. When clients are affected, especially clients who have a lot of purchasing power and a very high average purchases, we are more affected by the Middle East than maybe others. We're going to be more affected than others. We were slightly affected for Q1. Slightly affected because January and February were very good, March less so. We're not responsible of exchange rates, nor are we responsible of geopolitical developments. We do have experts in our Supervisory Board on such matters because we have bankers, specialists in geopolitics, we've got entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, it is difficult for us to foresee conflicts and to predict the share price.
I remain extremely proud of the work that we are undertaking. Secondly, I'm also, well, not sure. I'm trying to look for a better word. I'm not sure, but I'm convinced nonetheless, that our model is relevant in the current world because we are very resilient. We've had quite a few problems to deal with over the last few years, and you need to prepare for this volatility, this uncertainty, this ambiguity. I'm telling you this to you today because you are a captive audience. When I say this at home, nobody really pays any attention. Since the beginning of the 21st century, we have a problem every two years, 9/11, SARS, Fukushima, terrorist attacks in Paris, the war in Ukraine, then COVID, and now war in the Middle East.
We discussed this with Patrick Boucheron , who's an expert, a professor at the Collège de France, and a specialist of Middle Ages and the plague, among other things. He tells me that crises are inevitable and unpredictable at the same time. There will be a next crisis, but I don't know where it will come from. Now, our crises will affect a division, a country, a region, but I think that with our strategy, we'll be able to offset that. I am quite optimistic when it comes to the fundamentals of Hermès and our ability to navigate a world that is quite anxiety-inducing in spite of my optimism. The share price has gone down to some extent, but the results, I think, speak for themselves, and I hope that the market will understand what we explain and not jump from one fashion trend to another.
A few figures on that. If you have two companies, one that is at -60%, one that is at +40% and 101%, and the other one then goes at +60%, they're still at 64%, and the other one is at 102%. Now, you could say, "Okay, you've done 1%, they've done +60%," but they came from a lower point. So I'm always quite careful when it comes to percentages. Just to say that our valuation is good, our price-earnings ratio is 35x, where for the industry, we're slightly above 20x, and another indicator is the valuation of the company, we're 9x our revenue when on average for the industry, it's 2.7x. The share price had gone 5.2x when the CAC 40 was 1.8x over the last few years.
Yes, we are always very concerned when we look at the figures, but more reassured when we look at the competition around us. Now, your questions were very interesting, and I'd just like to add something to what Axel said. First of all, endorse what he said, but also remind you that we've talked about this long-term vision. This long-term vision is really crucial at Hermès. Jean-Louis Dumas actually often used to say, and that will tie in with the question on marketing, Jean-Louis Dumas always said, "What is important is our reputation more than how many people know about us." We build our reputation rather than fame at Hermès. The short-term obstacles need to be looked at through this long-term vision lens. I hope that by doing so, you'll be happy and satisfied with our journey.
Question eight.
Marine Bertossi , private investor. You've sort of answered part of my question, so I will agree with what you said, but I will make a comment nonetheless. I'd like to thank you for your strategy and the deep-held beliefs of Hermès over time. This is even more valuable in these difficult times. My question is as follows: You have gone through and weathered a number of crises. You've mentioned this, exogenous outside crises, and in the current political, geopolitical crises and war, would you say that customers are changing their behavior and maybe might have an impact on future purchasing behavior? We'd seen something with COVID. This time around, we've got peace maybe, or maybe war, and that might have an impact.
Well, thank you. Thank you, madam. Can I be very honest here? The furthest-reaching change I've seen over the last few years, as concerns our sales to our customers, is something that I experienced in the early 2010s. Up until then, the most reliable way to forecast sales in a country was GDP growth. GDP growth meant increase in middle classes, meaning an increase in customers at Hermès and therefore growth. From 2018--
They say the most reliable proxy is real estate and the bond market, the share market. You now buy more depending on your wealth than on your income. We've seen an increase in real estate valuation, significant indeed. The issues we're experiencing in China is probably related to the drop in real estate valuation, leading people to spend less and save more. The changes in the real estate market and the stock market are key. Admittedly, war and peace have an impact, but you might see circumstances where there's a heightened nationalism with people wanting to be in an area more than in the world and it feels that Hermès products, because there aren't many of them, they're high quality, you don't find many replacements, have maintained their strong appeal, and there's also an issue with geopolitics.
In the Middle East, or at least in those parts of the Middle East where the stores are still open, because the authorities are trying to be normal, even in times of war. In those places, the circumstances are still weaker, but still positive. Compare that to COVID when 83% of our stores were closed. Then we'll see what happens once the travails have come to an end. People tend to want to be happier and more joyful. We just have to adjust to crises happening in some places. I'm very mindful of our senior exec in Japan who will be retiring this year, but we were together after Fukushima. The sales were significantly impacted. We reopened our stores because our staff wanted to be together with their colleagues, with their teams in the stores. They felt better there than at home.
It was a difficult year, but two years later, it was one of the countries experiencing the most buoyant growth. You just have to go along with the fact that some markets have difficulties, other new markets are slightly buoyant. Éric didn't want to say so much, but look at Japan and such good results with 10% increase and the presence of a strong Japanese customer base, in part because we did what we had to do during Fukushima, and in no small part due to loyalty. We have to show that even in hard times, we are here alongside people.
Question four, please.
Mesmer, private investor. Good morning. In the Middle East, in Saudi, you do not have a store, even though your main competitors have stores in Jeddah and Riyadh. Why?
True. We have been waiting. We've looked at what projects might suit us. You know the legal framework also has changed. You remember that we couldn't operate and run directly our business. Now we can. We are thinking about it. We do, rest assured, have a very good Saudi customer base. Tourists, admittedly, in Europe or in other places in the Middle East. Significant demand, but then how do you pick? How do you make your choice between Riyadh and Jeddah? Some haven't, in fact, chosen one over the other. We're working on this, but we have to find the right kind of project. We need to find the right partner, et cetera.
Question five.
Private investor. On the exceptional dividend, you've stopped paying them out. Is this like a horse balking at the obstacle, or do you expect to do that again? On beauty and fragrances on page 27, there's an 8% drop in sales, even though a year or two years ago, you launched all kinds of makeup and creams and lipsticks. Was that a mistake, and what do you expect of that division? Can I maybe contribute an answer to the dividend? That is the Supervisory Board's remit after all.
Exceptional dividend. Well, as the name says, is exceptional. Others charge exceptional fees which are not that exceptional. But we keep it exceptional in our dividends. Also, what we really want to have is a resilient payout, a balanced payout, and a genuine share of value. As you will have noticed, looking at the ordinary dividend here at Hermès, we've always paid out anywhere between 33% and 40%, say 39%, and this year we're at 39% payout.
This is what we're really focusing on and trying to stay true to, which is why ordinary dividend increases, but in line with these objectives. I do say that all of this is doing what we must, and maybe we'd have been sending the wrong signal with a recurring exceptional payout. Axel then says, "Right, this is a message to the government. We've been honest with what is exceptional and what isn't," you haven't. Of course, the government may impose exceptional tax later in the future, and we might go back to exceptional dividends.
Well, beauty and fragrance. You tell us if it's glass half full or glass half empty. It's clearly not clear cut. You know the industry is difficult. Again, we don't control our distribution and our retail in fragrance and beauty. You know about Saks going bankrupt. You know the difficulties, you read that in the newspapers, and all of that might have led to a slightly less dynamic market. Also, it's a very consolidated market. L'Oréal and Puig are talking about maybe merging. Some in our business have pulled out of that market. We're hoping to go on with our model, with our approach, which is demanding, maybe a bit difficult, but we are developing these products in-house.
The results are, as you will have noticed, always positive and still positive on beauty and fragrance in our stores, so where we have the upper hand. Very honestly, let me say quite frankly, that the industry is, how should I put it? Focused, very marketing driven, and that's not quite our general practice. We're trying to stay true to ourselves, while at the same time do it their way.
Maybe if we only did it our way, it would be worse. Results have been fairly good for Q1 on beauty. On fragrances, we've had some partners that have had cold feet, maybe, but we have to focus on making sure that we are a tri-dimensional brand. We have to find products that really work well on the market. We're looking at care. We have to make sure that our products are better than those than the ladies in the family are using, because everyone's been telling me, "Oh, will your product be better?" Anyway, we will do something, and we hope that the products will be better for hydrating the skin, maybe doing something about anti-aging care also. I daren't say it. We have something great, and that is Terre d'Hermès. That is one of the best men's fragrances. Barénia had a good launch.
We just have to improve our position in rankings in ladies products. I am fairly confident in the future. Can I say that what is happening is roughly in line with our strategic forecast, maybe a bit faster or starker, but I am convinced that these will progress and improve.
Question 10.
Julien Mattens, private investor. Hermès restricts its production levels to preserve desirability. How do you strike a balance between growth of sales and managing scarcity? Is there a growth rate which you don't want to reach? Congratulations for 2025. Hoping that 2026 will be just as good.
Okay. I understand the question. Thank you for putting it. I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion, though. Of course, people are telling us that it's marvelous the way we manage scarcity. It's not us. We're not doing it on purpose. It's just the way these products are manufactured. Craftsmen, that's what it is. We've not been creating desirability for six generations. No, we're just managing inbuilt scarcity in the craftsman model.
The fact is that we can't train more than 400-500 craftsmen a year. If we were, we'd have an impact on production level. I'm one of the annoying people who wanted to have that leather piping again in our stores. [Max Abessas] is, of course, moaning about it, because, well, you can't send everyone on leather piping on the handrails. They usually do handbags, don't they? When I send them to sew for a fortnight, well, that's a fortnight away from the workbench producing bags. Anyway, the other issue, which is a more structuring one and a longer-term one, is the quality of materials.
We mentioned that earlier, and industrial farming makes it a bit more difficult to find high-quality materials. What I'm saying is that demand is high enough that I don't even have to think about artificially reducing the level of production of leather. We are using what we have, and we are, again, manufacturing in France, and craftsmen are doing all they can.
Okay, I'll pat myself on the back on this one, but I, very early on, felt that we had to strike a balance between the various businesses and not focus only on leatherware. I am quite old. I ran my first internship in 1988, and it was 65% in textile and 9% in leather in those days. Now we rebalanced it. Leather is about 45% of our sales and the other businesses, divisions, have grown also, but thanks to their own strength. We're not restricting growth on leather, and we're not looking at pie chart goals and setting the pie chart and then squeezing our business into it. We're growing the pie chart.
Right. There are other questions. Question 11.
Good afternoon. I am an individual shareholder, and in spite of sending my question in writing in due course, I didn't receive my invitation. In the queue, I actually realized that tens, if not hundreds of people, were actually waiting, and the staff was overwhelmed by the sheer flow of people who had not received their invitation. Some people in the queue were saying that this was not up to our expectations when it comes to Hermès quality.
Well, thank you very much for that feedback. I do notice, nonetheless, that you were able to make it inside the room, and we're very glad, and I hope that it was the case for everybody else. In any case, we'll take your feedback on Board so that our general meeting runs even more smoothly next year. Thank you for that comment. Number one.
Good morning, Mr. Olpo, individual shareholder. I'd just like to build on what the gentleman has just said. Quite a few of us were not allowed in spite of having our invitation. We insisted a little bit, and one of your representatives helped us to come in. But we don't have the devices to vote, and we can see that there are quite a few empty seats, so we don't really understand what happened. I arrived when we were talking about Japan, the video on Japan. Apologies if my question has been answered before my arrival in the room this morning. My question is, are you going to diversify your know-how? Are you going to branch out a little bit? Are you going to venture outside of France for production? There was this video about Japan. You talked about jewelry in Jaipur, India.
There's also a kind of anti-Western sentiment in many countries around the world. Against that backdrop, one might think that there will be some boycotts of Western brands. My question is, are you thinking about it? Are you maybe looking for craftspeople outside of Europe, people who would do as good a job as those that are at Hermès currently? Secondly, I was wondering whether there was any study on building new subsidiaries abroad on top of the new stores that you already open to avoid taxes in France, be it that exceptional contribution for large corporations. The landscape for taxes in France is not going to get any better, not for the foreseeable in any case. Are you thinking about options in that regard?
Final question, we see that there is a slowdown in airline traffic, this will have an impact on your sales in airports. You also told us that your Indian clients buy Hermès products when they travel abroad. Will that impact you going forward?
Well, a quick answer, because I've been quite long in my previous answers. I'll try to keep it brief to make my cousin happy. First of all, on know-how. Now, I am very much in love with our know-how and the techniques, and regardless of where they sit, I think it's great. I mentioned earlier, the jewelry makers in Jaipur. It's great. Now, we don't use them. We mainly make our jewels in France and a little bit in Italy. Our aim is not to have operations in all countries.
Where you are right, however, is that when we spot a great know-how, we like to use it. For example, the craftspeople in Kyoto. We also have some handwoven products made in Nepal, which are more expensive actually than what we make in Lyon. When there's an incredible know-how, we try and use it. What we always strive to do, to answer your second question, is to draw on these know-how where there is a culture of that know-how. For example, for leather goods, there's a strong culture of making leather goods in France. This is why 100% of our leather goods are made in France. There's a great culture of making silk products in Lyon, and therefore, a vast majority of our silk products are made in Lyon.
I don't believe that we can find ways to circumvent tax law or labor law by setting up somewhere else. No, I think it's worth setting up shop where we've been for several generations. By way of example, we opened a leather workshop in Louviers, and by doing the construction work there, we discovered a needle that dated back to prehistorical times, and it's quite moving to think that 15,000 years before Christ, we were already making leather products here. It's not always easy to push this narrative to the financial markets. Nonetheless, it's a nice story to tell. Sometimes there are challenges because of geopolitics, because of air travel. At Hermès, we are very lucky because we have a very strong local customer base. Most of the demand comes from people who live around the stores.
Actually, we have loyal customers who have their very own sales assistant, for example, or store director. What we have noticed in recent times is that Hermès clients mainly buy products in their own country. Now, on the short-term, it might create some negative impacts. For the Middle East, we have clients who travel quite a lot. Yes, we've lost them for the time being because they used to travel to Europe quite a lot, and likewise for Thailand. We are multi-local. We are Taiwanese in Taiwan, we are Indonesian in Indonesia, American in America, and I think that's pretty much in keeping with global developments.
Okay, I can see that it's getting quite late. We're going to answer a few more questions. Please be brief in your questions, and Axel promises to be brief in his answers. If you could save a bit of time on the questions, that'd be great. Number 12, I can't see very well, but yeah, over to you.
Lydie Bergé, I'm a journalist. Thank you very much for your presentations. They are always very interesting and inspiring. At the end of 2014, in an interview, you talked about maybe venturing into haute couture. Is that still the case, and if so, when is it going to happen?
Well, thank you very much. Yes, you're right. We embarked on this project that happened by chance. I talked about it, and other people decided to run with it. As usual, we want to do things the right way. We are currently recruiting some teams to work in the workshops. We try to have a team that is up and ready. I have seen some proposals made by Nadège, and I think that they are great, but maybe I'm a little biased. The idea is to launch when we're ready, and probably in the course of 2027. We have so many things to do in 2027. It's very exciting, but it's quite a crammed year. It's an exciting project.
Okay, two more questions because I can only see two placards. Number six first.
Good morning, André Rinne.
[Non-English content] I've got only one question. I'm from Salzburg. I know that our store is based on franchise, which is running out by the end of the year. I just want to know if there is a chance that we can keep our Hermès store in Salzburg, because I love it. I have to say that I've compared the quality of other haute couture brands and your quality, your products are by far the best in the world. Thank you for the quality, thank you for the products you offer, and thank you for the services in all of your stores all around the world. Wherever I go, I visit Hermès because I really love your company, our company, and thank you.
Thanks a lot for your comments because it's really warm. [Non-English content] Probably worth translating that into French. The comment was mainly a word of gratitude for the products that we make. Our shareholder is from Salzburg. We have a store that will be transferred towards the end of the year, and our shareholder was worried about the future of that store. Axel, over to you.
Well, first of all, we did not know, but after such a kind question, I can announce that Salzburg will remain open. Thank you to the shareholders for their kind support.
Well, quite an answer indeed. Brief in any case. "Probably not the best idea I've had," said Axel Dumas, "but yeah, that's my answer." Number eight.
Monsieur Bullard. A private investor. Looking at the world, there are a number of markets, Africa, Europe, Asia, or rather, I can't see Africa. Do you have any business in Africa?
Well, we don't have any stores in Africa. We haven't yet found the right place for the quality of the retail and the development or the size of the middle class. Usually, we set up shop, literally, when the middle class is large enough in a place. Now, we do have African customers, but they travel, and when we actually do set up a store somewhere, it's because the conditions are right. We tend not to be the first ones to get in, quite simply because we move in for a local customer base and not for tourists. We do have projects. We're giving them time, and you might have to wait a bit longer.
Right. Splendid. Thank you very much. That was the last question of this question and answer session. Can I tell you, there were two questions or two comments about the way the assembly was run. Can I tell you that there was a 30% increase in attendance today compared to last year? Of course, we should have foreseen that, but it's not always easy. Also, the request for voting cards was a bit later this year. We did try and work on this over the last 24 hours. We've asked, as much as they could, shareholder employees to stay at home. They're online. We've also added a few, maybe 100 or so, seats in the room. We did try our best, and apologies, we will do better next year.
Which now brings us to the resolutions. You are familiar with the voting terminal. You have it yourself. You have 12 seconds to vote when I say voting is open. Please press on one of the three buttons, number one for, two against, and three to abstain. You will see a confirmation of your vote on the display screen. If you've pressed on the wrong button, don't panic. You can press again, and it is the last button you've pressed that will be taken into account. Can I also say that the only votes expressed by shareholders present or represented are taken into account for the calculation of the quorum?
Let's now move on. We got it on screen, not quite yet, please. We will now move on and take the first resolution, approval of the parent company financial statements. Please vote. Voting complete. The resolution is passed. Second resolution, approval of the consolidated financial statements. Please vote. Voting complete. Approved. Resolution 3. It's the discharge to the management. Please vote.
We vote.
Voting complete. Resolution passed. Resolution four, allocation of net income and distribution of an ordinary dividend worth EUR 18. Please vote. Voting complete. Resolution passed. Resolution number 5, approval of related party agreements. Please vote.
We vote.
Voting complete. Resolution passed. Resolution number 6, authorization to the management to trade in the company's shares. Please vote. Voting complete. Resolution passed. Resolution number 7, approval of the information referred to in chapter one of Article L. 22-10-9 of the French Commercial Code, as concerns compensation for the financial year ended 31st of December 2025 for all corporate officers. Please vote.
We vote.
Voting complete. Resolution is also passed. Resolution number 8, approval of total compensation and benefits of all kinds paid during or awarded in respect to financial year 2025 to Mr. Axel Dumas. Please vote. Voting complete. Approved. Resolution number 9, approval of total compensation and benefits of all kinds paid during or awarded in respect to the financial year ended 31st December 2025 to Émile Hermès , Executive Chairman. Please vote.
We vote.
Voting complete. Approved. Resolution number 10, approval of total compensation and benefits of all kinds paid during or awarded in respect of financial year ended 31st of December 2025 to Monsieur Éric de Seynes, Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Please vote.
We vote.
Voting complete. Approved. Resolution number 11, approval of the compensation policy for the Executive Chairman. Please vote.
We vote.
Voting complete. Resolution approved. Resolution number 12, approval of the compensation policy for members of the Supervisory Board. Please vote.
We vote.
Voting complete. Approved. Resolution number 13, reappointment of the Supervisory Board Member, Ms. Dorothée Altmayer, for a three-year term. Please vote.
We vote.
Voting complete. Approved. 14. Reappointment as a member of the Supervisory Board of Mr. Renaud Momméja, three-year term. Please vote. Voting complete. Approved. Resolution 15: reappointment of Mr. Éric de Seynes as a member of the Supervisory Board for three years. Please vote. Voting complete. Approved. Thank you. Resolution 16: appointment of Mrs. Lucia Sinapi-Thomas as a new member of the Supervisory Board for a three-year term. Please vote. Voting complete.
Approved at an overwhelming majority. Congratulations, Lucia. Resolution 17: authorization to executive management to reduce the share capital by cancellation of all or part of the treasury shares held by the company. Please vote. Voting complete. Approved. Resolution 18: authorization to management to grant free existing shares. Please vote. Voting complete. Approved. Which now brings me to Resolution 19, amendment of Article 24 of the articles of association, which I mentioned earlier. Please vote. Voting complete. Approved.
Resolution Number 20, delegation of authority to carry out formalities related to the meeting. Please vote. Voting complete. Approved. This brings us to the end of the meeting. Thank you so very much for coming in such great numbers. I hope to see you next year for the next general meeting on financial year 2026. Thank you, and good day to all.