Samsonite International SA, the world’s biggest luggage maker, has its eyes on adding a handbag brand and is open to a deal that could rival its US$1.8 billion purchase of Tumi, company chairman Timothy Parker said.
Handbags would help Samsonite fill a gap as the company focuses on boosting sales of office gear and non-travel products to women, Parker said in an interview last week.
Products designed for women account for less than 5 percent of the company’s sales and it aims to eventually boost that ratio to a quarter.
“Strategically, we are quite interested in handbags. We want to find a brand that fits with the rest of our portfolio of products,” said Parker, who has served as chairman since 2008. “The one product we don’t have a big presence in is handbags.”
Samsonite, which posted record net sales last year, is the dominant player in the US$19 billion global market for luggage. The company, which is listed in Hong Kong and is based in Mansfield, Massachusetts, is seeking to expand sales outside North America and increase its range of products.
Executives said they are optimistic about growth, with global travel and consumer sentiment on the upswing.
Samsonite shares have jumped 22 percent in the past year. The stock yesterday gained as much as 2.7 percent in Hong Kong, while the benchmark Hang Seng index slid.
Parker said that Samsonite is not actively approaching potential buyers, and the company will likely spend the next year or two consolidating after its US$1.8 billion acquisition of luxury bag maker Tumi Holdings Inc in 2016 and the US$105 million purchase of online retailer eBags Inc last year.
The non-travel products market could be a potential space for deals in the future, he said in a separate interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday.
Samsonite would be prepared to pay a premium and is interested in a handbag brand that has an international footprint, Parker said.
“Most handbag brands are owned by luxury brands and few are open to selling,” he said. “We are not afraid of paying a good price for a good business. We certainly have the firepower to do it. A good fit is key.”
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six