Mumbai Becomes Home to Luxury Travel Retailing!
Mumbai Becomes Home to Luxury Travel Retailing!

Trunk house is a premium retail destination housing travel gear from around the globe. It is the first premium multi-brand travel luggage store located at Palladium, Mumbai. The store features high fashion luggage brands such as Calvin Klein and DKNY from the U.S, Smart luggage bags from Singapore, pure luggage brands like Roncato and  Canadian Heys, Trussardi and Cerruti from Italy. In an exclusive conversation Founder, Amrit Uttam sheds light on luxury travel market.  

What inspires you to launch Trunk House. Also, shed light on your entrepreneurial journey?  

My exposure to the luggage universe courtesy my stint with Delsey that  educated me of the lack of quality infrastructure to retail premium luggage. Buying luggage was a boring experience from the products to the shopping ambiance. The need for a comfortable luxurious space filled with luggage as exciting as the travel plans being made was what inspired me to aim to provide the same.

What is your assessment of the premium luggage market in India? According to you what are the factors propelling growth in this segment?

The market is small but growing. The reason its growing is because people are traveling more. Also, everyone wants to differentiate themselves. They want to look good. They want a comfortable piece of equipment that suits their personality. They want good quality and whether they like to admit it or not, they like their luggage to say they have “arrived”.

Tell us more about Trunk House including the distribution, brands/ categories assortment and average bill size. Going forward, what would be your strategy to scale-up the competition?

Trunk house currently houses 7 premium brands that each speak for themselves in terms of personality, design, quality and perceived value. These brands are Calvin Klein, DKNY, LeSportsac, Heys, Cerruti, Trussardi, and Roncato. We pick the best products in terms of both aesthetics, technology, and performance so that the customer just has to make a final selection. 

The average bill size is Rs.25000.We plan to add more brands that offer premium luggage and travel accessories which will cement TrunkHouse as the only destination for premium luggage.

Indian market is already penetrated with many renowned brands including VIP, Samsonite amongst others. Being a start-up in this space, how do you plan to counter the competition?

We are creating a new premium niche in the market. Every store and bag is and is not competition. It is not competition because it doesn’t offer a bouquet of unique products as we do across so many premium brands. But they are competition only because the traveler needs to decide which bag works best for them. We would let our product range speak for itself and let the consumer decide.

According to you, what are the major challenges as far as luggage retailing is concerned?

As I mentioned, the lack of quality retail stores. We need better spaces, better merchandised and better lit. This, in turn, is a result of a lack of availability of space in good shopping destinations coupled with high rents. All premium brands end up vying for the same spaces and driving the rents high.

Have raised any sorts of funds or plan to?

Our venture is currently internally funded. We would raise funds only after we have met our self imposed benchmarks of growth and profitability.

At last, kindly highlight your growth plans? 

We plan on opening TrunkHouse stores in premium retail destinations in the Metros and airports. Our plan is 6-7 such stores in 1st half of 2020.

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