High-end Luggage brand Hartmann enters India

MUMBAI: High-end American luggage brand Hartmann opened its first store in the country in Bangalore on Monday and plans to open five more doors by the end of next year.

"We were missing a play at the top end of the market and to be able to capture that, one needs a story and a brand with the right DNA," said Ramesh Tainwala, Global CEO at Samsonite, which acquired Hartmann in 2012. “Hartmann is that brand that we would like to position as classic American luxury," he said.

The Rs 8,000-crore Indian luggage market is largely controlled by mass priced products of Samsonite and VIP. However, both companies along with Delsey have been aggressively pushing premium products in the country since the last few years.