Van Cleef & Arpels to Open Two New Jewelry Workshops in France
PARIS — As the demand for hard luxury continues to grow globally, Van Cleef & Arpels said it will open two new jewelry workshops in France within the next three years.
They will bring to four the number of in-house production sites in France for the house’s jewelry. Current facilities are in Paris and Lyon, where Van Cleef & Arpels has been implanted since it purchased a long-term partner in 2017.
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An extension of its Lyon workshop is also ongoing. The overall budget for these projects is more than 100 million euros, according to the company.
The sites revealed on Thursday will be located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, respectively in the “Porte du Vercors” activity park, in the municipality of Châteauneuf-sur-Isère, and in the municipality of Thiers, next to the Dorat village in the district of townships of Thiers Dore et Montagne, an area known for its metal crafts and polishing expertise.
Pilot sites are slated to open in 2024 and both sites will be fully operational by 2026. The Châteauneuf-sur-Isère site will span 66,000 square feet on a 5.5-acre plot, housing production, support and training facilities. In Thiers, the renovation of an existing building is underway and is expected to also be completed by 2026.
The Van Cleef & Arpels Pépinière apprenticeship training program — created in 2020 in partnership with the Paris-based Haute École de Joaillerie — will be expanded to the new locations, in close collaboration with the Amblard vocational high school, specialized in jewelry and metalsmithing crafts.
Recruitment is already underway, with each site accounting for an additional 250 employees, and 100 employees for the extension of its Lyon atelier. As of 2023, Van Cleef & Arpels said it had 300 specialists across its internal jewelry and watchmaking workshops in France and Switzerland.
Van Cleef & Arpels’ parent company Compagnie Financière Richemont will release its full-year 2023 results on May 12, with its core jewelry division expected to grow by 18 percent, driven by China’s reopening and growth in Europe and the rest of Asia, according to Barclays.
In its 2023 third-quarter sales released in January, the group said its flagship jewelry brands — Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Buccellati — had grown 8 percent in the three-month period ended Dec. 31.
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