Bagging India: Samsonite lugs in new ideas

bangalore: box-y luggage is about as macho as it gets but statistics world over indicate that 75 per cent of luggage is bought by women! for the men in their life, of course. india seems to be no exception. that''s some baggage for international women''s day. naturally, for the father of all luggage companies, samsonite, communicating to a much savvier indian consumer __ men, women and increasingly, the youth __ is crucial.as luc van nevel, president and ceo of samsonite corporation, usa, says that in the luggage space, the us has been growing 2-3 per cent per annum while asia records 6-7 per cent growth. which explains why the $1-billion samsonite has big plans for india, including expanding its exclusive retail store network called travel world and making india a worldwide hub. nevel, who was in bangalore on his annual india trip, and to inaugurate the city''s first travel world outlet at safina plaza, says the country has been changing rapidly in retail. the company has earmarked an investment of rs 10 crore for its retail plans and has targeted 82 franchised outlets by march-end with 64 already in place. some interesting product launches are slated for the year in an attempt to strengthen samsonite''s presence in the premium (rs 2,000-plus) segment where it claims a 62 per cent market share. vip still holds sway with samsonite''s overall market share at a mere 16 per cent. worldwide, samsonite has shifted its strategy from a single to multibrand company with a focus in india on american tourister as a family brand, samsonite for the professional traveller and trunk & co targeted at the young, backpacking crowd. while the organised luggage market is only rs 500 crore, with an equal share in the unorganised sector, samsonite is encouraged by the fact that the bottom segment is shrinking and the unorganised pie has been showing degrowth since 1996. while the premium segment accounts for 25 per cent of the total, it is the fastest growing and nevel is happy that indians are keen on upgradation. the 60:40 indian jv (40 per cent held by ramesh tainwala) has targeted a turnover of rs 120 crore this fiscal. exports from its nashik plant to the far east, west asia and europe have been growing steadily. for a bit of trivia, samsonite got its name from biblical strongman samson combined with the last syllable of the name of its first suitcase __ overnite. for a company that was born in 1910 and started out with horse saddles to cater to the gold rush-led demand in the us, sourcing for the us from india is like coming full circle, snapped shut.