Samsonite bets on Asia boom
Luggage maker Samsonite, backed by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, is betting on booming demand from China, India and other countries in Asia to drive its future growth as the company readies an initial public offering of as much as $1.5 billion in Hong Kong.
The Luxembourg-based company sees its biggest growth potential in China, where it has a 12.5 percent market share, compared with 30-35 percent average in more mature markets, Ramesh Tainwala, president of Samsonite for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, said on Tuesday.
“Today when we look at our business, Asia starts to become our most important part of the business, partly because of macroeconomic factors,” Tainwala said at a news conference ahead of a store opening in Hong Kong.
“The center of gravity of the wealth of the world is moving toward Asia. There are more and more Asians travelling, so it’s natural for us to expect bigger growth.”
Samsonite, owned by CVC and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) following a debt restructuring last year, gets nearly one-third of its revenue from Asia, he added.
The company last week received Hong Kong stock exchange approval for its IPO, which is being managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), HSBC Holdings Plc (0005.HK) (HSBA.L) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N).
Consumer Luxury Trend – Made in China?
The luxury market is still changing a lot in terms of demand. Especially China where you would have almost no chance to establish a product with the Trademark “Made in China”. But over the next years we will see a change in that after the completion of a cultural transformation.
And probably they will be the leading generator to a different kind of requested HiTec products, such as robots that help you too do the household. Away from only supplying parts to different products they will be part in the whole value chain.
And the demand for once-in-a-lifetime experiences (spacetrip) will increase while the at-any-time-experience will decrease. The trend may start in China because there we see the fastest growth in terms of rich people that are likely to spend money for the “Extra”. Especially as we will see a lot very young people within the next years that will make their way up.
Luxury Industry in the US back to growth?!
Seems like people are getting less fearless. Is this a good sign? I don´t know! But the Luxury market has shown as one of the most stable during the past years.
So the question is if it make sense to go back into the market? And how a potential concept to increase awareness in the market could look like? A friend of mine is currently setting up a brandnew and unique concept how to conquer the luxury markets. Especially in the BRIC and N-11 regions.
But it also seems as if the countries many people didn´t had an eye on – in the positive way – are getting back to become somewhat stable. So at the end don´t forget the US. History has shown that they “always come back”.
GetItDone 