High Sierra Among Samsonite’s Fastest Growing Brands

Samsonite International S.A. reported that 24.9 percent currency-neutral growth at High Sierra, and the acquisition of Gregory Mountain Products, helped fuel a 25.1 percent increase in sales in its casual product category in 2014.

Hong Kong-based Samsonite, which has been acquiring brands to lessen its reliance on its core luggage business, reported High Sierra sales reached $89.2 million in the year ended Dec. 31, 2014, up 23.9 percent (24.9 percent c-n) compared with $72.0 million in 2013.Gregory Mountain Products brought in $12.6 million in revenue during the last six months of 2014.

Samsonite has owned High Sierra since 2012 and acquired Gregory from Black Diamond Inc. in July, 2014 .

Samsonite attributed the growth at High Sierra to continued expansion into Asia, Europe and Latin America.

“As we continue the broader geographical rollout of High Sierra and Hartmann, we're seeing very encouraging signs from consumers, and expect both of these brands will be drivers of considerable growth for our business going forward,”  said Samsonite CEO Ramesh Tainwala.

Samsonite said the integration of Gregory and two other brand acquired during the year was substantially complete and that plans to expand its product ranges and distribution were well advanced.

“Our share of travel has reduced from 74.4 percent of total net sales in 2013 to 70.4 percent in 2014, while that of non-travel has grown from 25.6 percent to 29.6 percent during the same period,” said Tainwala. “This demonstrates the progress we have made in a short time to diversify our brand and product portfolio. Over the next five years, we aim to increase the contribution of our non-travel brands to around 50 percent of total net sales.”

Samsonite said its Group net sales in North America, which includes the United States and Canada, increased by 22.4 percent to US$761.3 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2014 compared to the previous year.  Excluding foreign currency effects, net sales increased by 22.9 percent. The Group's continued focus on marketing and selling products designed to appeal to North American consumers, as well as the addition of the Speck and Gregory brands, contributed to the net sales growth in the region.

Excluding net sales attributable to Speck and Gregory, net sales increased by 6.9 percent, or 7.3 percent on a constant currency basis. Net sales across both the Samsonite and American Tourister brands, as well as across the travel and casual categories, all recorded solid year-on-year constant currency growth, while the business and accessories categories performed particularly well on the back of the Speck acquisition.