Richemont’s 21 600 people (FTE - full time equivalents) around the world are instrumental to the success of the business. Through our suppliers and business partners, we also provide employment opportunities for many more.

Our employees work in three main areas:

• Maisons – headquarters, from creation, marketing and communications to product development, Maison-related manufacturing, retail and distribution;
• Component Manufacturing and Regional Shared Services – business services provided to the Maisons both in terms of Group component manufacturing services and services provided in the Regions including logistics, customer service, finance and human resources;
• Central Functions – head office functions including marketing services, finance, operations, IT, real estate, legal and human resources.

Our long-standing strategic priorities are:

• Performance management;
• Health, safety and well-being;
• Training and development;
• Consulting and communicating with employees;
• Diversity and equal opportunities.

Richemont was not immune from the global economic slowdown which began in 2008/09. Where unavoidable, Maisons made redundancies. Alternative solutions were adopted in most cases, such as internal transfers, stopping overtime, shorter working hours and maximising in-sourcing. The current year has seen a return to sales growth in most markets and an increase in the number of people employed by the Group.

Local hiring is the norm for the Group. Its manufacturing operations are concentrated in Switzerland, France and Germany and its retail activities broadly spread worldwide. Accordingly, the great majority of the Group’s 22 600 employees were hired locally. Given this emphasis, which is intrinsic to the way we do business, there are no formalised guidelines in respect of local hiring.

economic impact

The Group’s size and diversity allows employees to develop careers across a variety of positions and locations and internal promotion is favoured over external recruitment in most cases. This also applies to senior management positions at significant operations.

Key performance data

Detailed below is a split of our total workforce by employee type, by geographical region and by employment contract.

Richemont’s operating regions are Europe (including Africa and the Middle East), Far East (including Japan and Asia Pacific) and the Americas.