lifting the group’s manufacturing capacity by about 50 per cent, and it will employ 7000 people once fully staffed.  But the investment raises an awkward timing question: Pandora is adding capacity for a growth spurt that has not yet arrived. The company expects organic revenue growth of up to 3 per cent this year, and it has told investors its operating margin will dip in 2027 as cheaper silver hedges roll off. At the opening ceremony, Pablos-Barbier said the plant will help the company reduce its reliance on a single country and leave room for growth management it expects to come. Pandora may be the world’s biggest jewellery brand, she added, but it holds only about 2 per cent of the global market. A second manufacturing base Thailand has been the Danish group’s sole manufacturing site since 1989 with three plants and about 13,000 employees. The neighbouring country, Vietnam, is now the company’s insurance, as it avoids dependence on a single manufacturing site.  According to Denmark’s ambassador Lina Gandløse Hansen, Danish manufacturers are increasingly considering Vietnam as a sourcing market because of its access to renewable energy. Pandora’s neighbour in VSIP III is the Lego Group, whose US$1.3 billion plant opened there in April 2025 as the toymaker’s first carbon-neutral factory.  Trade policy is a weaker explanation than it first appears. Since 24 July, goods from Thailand and Vietnam have entered the US under the same 12.5 per cent duty, so Vietnamese production saves Pandora nothing at the US border today. The value lies in having a second option when tariffs change again, as they have three times this year. The plant also has a part in Pandora’s biggest cost fix. With silver hedged at about US$32 an ounce this year but about US$65 an ounce for 2027, the company is moving much of its range to platinum-plated jewellery: about half of the relevant silver assortment in 2027 and the rest in 2028, largely made in-house. Pandora says the Vietnam facility will play an important role in that production. Where the pieces will be sold The factory is in Asia. Most of the customers are not. In the second quarter, Europe, the Middle East and Africa generated 47 per cent of revenue and North America 37 per cent, against 9 per cent for Asia Pacific. Like-for-like sales fell 2 per cent in EMEA and 1 per cent in North America, while Asia-Pacific rose 10 per cent and Latin America 18 per cent. Group organic growth was 3 per cent. Pandora said like-for-like growth was running at mid-single digits in the third quarter, helped by the timing of commercial activity. De Pablos-Barbier told CNBC that US consumer confidence, which fell through last year, has stayed low into September, while Europe is broadly stable but uneven from market to market. She added that the business in Japan has roughly doubled in the past three years and is still growing in the high double digits. Southeast Asia, served through distributors, is also growing. China meanwhile is rebuilding. The executive said sales there have stabilised and returned to growth this year after three years of decline, but the store base is still shrinking. Pandora closed a net 95 concept stores in China in the 12 months to June and plans about 25 more net closures this year. Asia Pacific’s concept store count fell from 527 to 445 over that period. India is not on the list for now. De Pablos-Barbier said Pandora has no short-term plans to enter and described the decision as one of timing and resource allocation rather than appeal. The Vietnam plant is built for a longer horizon than the current slowdown. “We’re building this facility for the next decade, not the next quarter,” de Pablos-Barbier told Reuters. Investors get their next read on whether demand is catching up on 4 November, when Pandora reports third-quarter results alongside a strategic update. Further reading: Norbreeze Group CEO on Pandora’s strategy in Vietnam’s fast-changing market.