Samsonite grows by 109% over last year; plans to launch large-scale campaign soon

With travel and tourism back in full swing, travel-related businesses are experiencing a boom as per Jai Krishnan, Chief Executive Officer- India at Samsonite South Asia. He also went on to cite that their business grew by 109% this time around over 2021. 

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Speaking further about the recovery, Krishnan said that the last six months have been phenomenal. He also said that the festive period this year will be larger than the last year. 

“We had a fantastic Diwali last year and we feel it's going to be even better this year. The month of October will be big and people have been travelling like crazy. This is visible not just in the travel bag business, but all travel-related businesses are experiencing this. We feel this will peak even more in this period. As we speak, we are growing 109% over last year. We expect this trend to continue over the year, we feel that this will be a big year. I personally believe that 2023 will also be very big,” stated Krishnan. 

While the share of ad spends on digital is improving, traditional media will still account for 70% of the total spending by Samsonite in India, as per Krishnan.

“Traditionally we invest in all the mediums, for all our brands. However, over the last few years, the share of digital has increased. Right now, we could be moving towards 30% of our spending on digital but 70% remains on traditional media,” Krishnan said.

Upon being asked about the advertising and marketing plans for Samsonite, Krishnan said, “As a brand, Samsonite hasn’t advertised for the last six months, however, there is a campaign being planned as we speak which is a fairly large budget campaign. The campaign will release around November or December,” he revealed. 

The company also recently launched a new collection, called ‘Magnum Eco’ - that focuses on sustainability. The luggage under this collection is made up of discarded plastic items like yoghurt cups and plastic bottles. However, as per Krishnan, sustainability is not something new at Samsonite. 

“We have always been very, very aware of doing things which are good for the planet. We've always been aware that we should try to mitigate the number of replacements that happen in our products. For the last 112 years, one common thing that has been throughout is that we make durable products. As a result, the number of replacements is much less and so is the load on the planet. We also focus on repairability,” he explained.  

He further said that they aim at launching newer collections every quarter and seek to innovate continuously. As the company is a multi-national operating in India, the Indian consumer has the option to choose from all the products that are launched internationally, he said. 

As per Krishnan, Samsonite which is a 112-year-old brand today enjoys a comfortable position in India. “The luggage industry in India is at about Rs 20,000 crore. Out of which 60% is dominated by unbranded products. Out of the 40% which is branded business, there are different price points. We dominate in the mid-high segment so there is hardly any competition here.” 

“American Tourister which is also our brand is very popular in India because there are many people in India who want to buy international brands. American Tourister is a very affordable international brand. The rest of local Indian brands do well in the lower price segments,” explained Krishnan. 

According to him, this is a great time to be in the luggage industry as travelling is bound to grow for Indians.

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