French designer Hermes International S.A. is going to pay outgoing CEO Patrick Thomas almost 1 million euros ($1.3 million) per year from 2014 to 2017 in a 10-year non-competition agreement. The deal was reportedly signed on November 1.
Thomas graduated from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris. Leading the company since 2006, he was the first CEO of the company who was not a descendant of founder Charles-Emile Hermes. Axel Dumas, a sixth-generation descendant of Hermes, will take over when Thomas leaves early next year. The two had been sharing the role of CEO since June as part of a transition.
Thierry Hermes opened a harness workshop in Paris catering to European noblemen in 1837. His son, Charles-Emile Hermes, took over and moved the shop to another part of Paris in 1880 and began retail sales of saddlery. The company served the elites of Europe, North Africa, Russia, Asia, and the Americas.
The company was later granted the exclusive right to use zippers for leather goods and clothing. During the 1920s, son Emile-Maurice Hermes took over the company and added an accessory line. The company began selling scarves in 1937 and perfume in 1949. It also made watches with Swiss watchmaker Universal Geneve from the 1930s to 1950s. The Kelly bag, named after Grace Kelly, became hugely popular in the 1950s.
The company opened more shops around the world in the 1970s but had declining sales due to its exclusive use of natural materials. Jean-Louis Dumas became chairman in 1978 and turned the company around. The company established watch subsidiary La Montre Hermes in the 1970s and gained greater stakes in French glassware and silverware companies in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the company expanded into clothing, and later began producing shoes. Almost all of its products are made in France by hand.
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