Donald and Ivanka Trump on hand as Louis Vuitton opens US factory to produce handbags with ‘Made in the USA’ tags

French luxury conglomerate LVMH makes good on promise to bring manufacturing jobs to US. Texas leather-goods workshop will eventually employ 1,000 people

Chairman Bernard Arnault builds on his rapport with US president; he was one of first CEOs to meet Trump after election, and Melania Trump likes to wear Dior

2-MIN READ2-MIN

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with chief executive of LVMH Bernard Arnault at the opening of the new Louis Vuitton factory in Alvarado, Texas. Its inauguration makes good on a pledge by Arnault to Trump to create jobs in the United States. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:13am, 18 Oct 2019Updated: 3:21pm, 18 Oct 2019

LVMH is following through on a pledge to create more manufacturing jobs in the United States, part of plan by Bernard Arnault, chairman of the French luxury conglomerate, to hedge against trade tensions and build on the rapport he’s established with US President Donald Trump.

Trump and his daughter Ivanka opened a new Louis Vuitton factory with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Texas on Thursday alongside Arnault, who is LVMH’s leading shareholder, and Michael Burke, the chief executive officer of its best-known brand.

In 2017, Arnault was one of the first CEOs to visit the president following his election, making the trip to Trump Tower along with his son Alexandre at a time when most fashion executives were paralysed over how to approach the new commander-in-chief. Fashion was caught between threats of tariffs on foreign suppliers and concerns that consumers opposing Trump would boycott brands that supported the new administration.

Arnault, whose other luxury brands include Givenchy perfume, Hennessy cognac and Veuve Clicquot champagne, said at the time that the two had discussed increasing US production.

US President Donald Trump greets Bernard Arnault, chief executive of LVMH, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Louis Vuitton Workshop Rochambeau in Alvarado, Texas. Photo: AP

The leather-goods workshop in Keene, a small town near Dallas, will create about 1,000 jobs over the next five years, the brand said in a statement – a drop in the bucket for the civilian US labour force of 164 million people, but possibly enough to strengthen ties with Trump, who ran on a platform of reversing America’s industrial decline.