French luxury brand Hermes on Wednesday denied a recent report by an Austrian weekly magazine that its boutique in Vienna is limiting the number of handbags that can be purchased by Japanese customers to two per person.
A spokeswoman at Hermes Japon Co., the Japanese unit of the popular brand based in Paris, said the Vienna boutique sent a letter to Format magazine Tuesday to ask it to run a correction.
The weekly recently quoted the manager of the Vienna shop, which opened last fall, as saying the shop will sell no more than two bags to each Japanese national to prevent them from buying up all the products sold at the store.
In the letter, the shop admitted it is setting a limit on the number of handbag sales because demand for Hermes bags is much higher than the company's production capacity.
But the restriction applies to customers of all nationalities, therefore the article is based on a misunderstanding, it said.
The letter also said the short supply is purely due to the enormous demand for Hermes handbags and is not a marketing tool to push up demand.