Donald Trump all smiles in the new Louis Vuitton workshop in the United States

Alvarado (United States) – US President Donald Trump was pleased to welcome the world of luxury on Thursday by inaugurating a production workshop for the French brand Louis Vuitton, a sign he said of his country's economic health and success. of his reforms.

"We proudly celebrate the opening of the Louis Vuitton brand, a name I know well and that has cost me a lot of money for years", smiled the former New York businessman, greeting an investment"50 million"French group dollars.

"This investment in job creation reflects the strength of our business in the United States, which continues to grow", for its part assured the CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault, third world fortune according to a recent ranking of Forbes magazine.

The United States is the first market for the luxury group, with 25% of sales or over a billion dollars a year, he said.

This inauguration was also the occasion of a rare meeting between Mr. Trump and a foreign businessman.

Mr. Arnault said in January 2017 to the Republican billionaire, who regularly calls domestic and foreign companies to develop in the United States, to be ready to invest more in the country.

Louis Vuitton, the flagship of the LVMH giant and the world's leading luxury brand, already has two leather goods shops on American soil in California. Their production of bags and leather goods is reserved for the American market.

Including salaries and taxes, the group invests nearly a billion dollars a year in the United States, said Arnault.

The site of a hundred hectares near Alvarado, a small town of 4,000 inhabitants southwest of Dallas, should employ about a thousand artisans "highly qualified"in five years, according to him.

– "Say hello to Emmanuel"-

This workshop "will soon employ 500 of the world's most skilled employees", added Donald Trump, assuring that"no one is up to the precision and perfection of American artisans".

The president was accompanied by his daughter and councilor Ivanka Trump, a luxury lover. LVMH opens the site "thanks to the economic policies of the Trump administration"That has mass tax cuts to revive the economy, she said Wednesday on Twitter.

The workshop was named "Rochambeau Ranch", named after the marshal who led the French troops during the American war of independence.

Donald Trump took advantage of this historic reminder to greet the "excellent relations"with France, who"remains not only our oldest ally but also the most reliable and valuable", and with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

"We have our little quarrels with Emmanuel from time to time"he joked."Say hello to Emmanuel", he told Bernard Arnault, adding:"I really like your president".

The Louis Vuitton malletier opened in 1859 in Asnieres, France, his very first workshop. The house now has a total of sixteen leather goods stores in France, three in Spain and one in Italy.

One out of every two craftsmen recruited from its French sites does not have any professional experience in sewing or leather goods, and employees are trained for a long time internally, after having passed very selective entrance tests.

Overall, the LVMH group and its 70 brands – Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Hennessy and Dom Perignon – achieved record results in 2018, with sales of 46 billion euros and a net profit exceeding 6 billion.