Samsonite International, the leading luggage brand, is scouting for a 4 lakh sq ft warehouse as it attempts to enhance market reach and ramp-up capacity.

As a stop gap arrangement, the company has tied-up with a third-party warehouse provider near its factory.

Moreover, the project to increase hard luggage manufacturing capacity at its Nashik plant in Maharashtra to 7.5 lakh pieces a month from 5 lakh pieces a month, will also be completed next July.

With utilisation of current manufacturing capacity inching closer to optimal level, Samsonite announced capacity expansion in January, entailing investments of ₹160 crore to ramp up its monthly capacity to 7.5 lakh units catering to both domestic and export markets.

The company is also expanding the network of retail stores to 600 by the end of this year.

Growth in demand

Jai Krishnan, CEO, Samsonite India said the demand for hard luggage is growing at a healthy pace not only due to rebound in business trips and holidays but also from wedding related travel with most of the weddings now happening in big hotels and people are more conscious of the luggage brand they carry along.

Established 13 years ago, he said the Nashik plant takes pride in being the world’s first and only facility employing patented pressure moulding technology for crafting hard luggage bodies and casings.

The company taps the market under three major brands Samsonite, American Tourister and Kamiliant.

While Samsonite caters to the top most end of the market, American Tourister has helped in premiumisation while Kamiliant, caters to the value segment and enables the company to effectively compete with Indian brands such as VIP, Aristocrat and Safari.

American Tourister is the company’s largest-selling brand by volume in the country, accounting for about 55 per cent of sales.

Currently, exports accounts for 10 per cent of Samsonite India’s manufacturing output. “We can easily double our exports share because India is a natural location for companies following a China-plus-one strategy,” the CEO said.

Currently, there are 460 stores of American Tourister, and the company plans to open 40 more by Diwali this year. For Samsonite, there are plans to open 20 more stores to take the total count to 100.

As per the Crisil report, the domestic luggage industry is estimated at about ₹35,000 crore with unorganised players account for 60 per cent of annual sales while the branded players such as Samsonite, VIP, and Safari contribute the remaining 40 per cent, amounting to ₹15,000 crore.

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