Samsonite

Samsonite is an international manufacturer of luggage such as suitcases and travel bags.

Since 2007, the original US-based company has its headquarters under the name Samsonite IP Holdings S.à rl in Luxembourg and is majority-owned by CVC Capital Partners. The North American headquarters is located since 2005 in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

History

The 1910 in Denver, Colorado by Jesse Shwayder ( 1882-1970 ), the son of a Polish- Jewish immigrant family founded company was first called Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company and produced heavy wooden chests. About 1916 a piece of luggage on the name Samson was baptized, where you used the biblical story of Samson as strong association. 1931, the company was again renamed to Shwayder Brothers, Inc., as Shwayders four brothers (Benjamin, Mark, Maurice and Sol Shwayder ), the first two in 1912, the company increased staffing.

1941, the Shwayder Brothers, Inc. for the first time from today's perspective, suitcase -like piece of luggage ago, the Samsonite Streamline. 1960 gave Jesse Shwayder management of the company officially to his son, King David Shwayder, but retained an active role in the company. Gradually the term became the Samsonite brand, and so they changed the company name in 1965 in their 1967 Inc. Samsonite Samsonite the first polypropylene suitcase forth and 1974, the first case on wheels.

In the 1970s the company expanded into the international markets and made the suitcase - brand a world leader. Meanwhile, 5,000 people worked for Samsonite. From 1972 to 1987, a nephew of Jesse Shwayder, Shwayder Irving ( 1922-2003 ), held the company chairman. In 1973, the American conglomerate Beatrice Foods Co., the company of the Shwayder family. The 1980s were difficult times for the company, which were associated with restructuring and layoffs. 1986 sold Beatrice Foods, the company Samsonite to investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. The latter founded in 1987 a company called E-II, at which, among other things Samsonite belonged. E-II went into bankruptcy in 1992, although Samsonite had achieved record results. Samsonite finally went to the Astrum International Corp. newly-founded. - With the major shareholders Apollo Management and Carl Icahn - based in Miami on which the luggage manufacturer and competitor American Tourister bought in 1993. The group headquarters were moved to Warren (Rhode Iceland ), where was the headquarters of American Tourister. 1995 Astrum informed on and there was the independent Samsonite Corporation, headquartered in Denver. From the mid- 1990s, numerous employees were laid off again, closed factories, raised prices, created new product lines and further opened up the Asian market. As of 1992, the French entrepreneur François Pinault had become concerned about his newly founded holding company Artemis at Samsonite. In 2000, Artemis held 30 % of Samsonite. Pinault met the participation from 2002.

As a result of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 was the need for luggage world dramatically. 2002 Listing of Samsonite on the NASDAQ has been set, and the company was threatened with insolvency. A consortium of three affiliated companies ( Ares Management, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Bain Capital) invested after long negotiations, from May 2003 a total of 106 million U.S. dollars in a recapitalization plan. The consortium was finally in possession of 56 % of the voting shares. The production plant in Denver was closed in 2006, as well as most European Samsonite factories. In July 2007, the Luxembourg financial investor CVC Capital Partners took over the company from the private equity consortium Samsonite using a loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland for 1.7 billion U.S. dollars. CVC enlarged inter alia, the network of its own Samsonite stores. The Bank held as a result almost 30 % of Samsonite, while CVC was owned by 54% of the shares. The headquarters of the luggage manufacturer has since been held in Luxembourg. In 2005, the North American headquarters to Mansfield, Massachusetts, has been laid in the vicinity of Boston. In 2008, the corporate debt was 1.3 billion U.S. dollars.

Samsonite awarded in 2009 a license for footwear ( Samsonite Footwear ), to the Italian manufacturer Zeis Excelsa, since 2011 owner of Bikkembergs. As early as the late 1990s, there had been shoes by Samsonite (see section " Samsonite Black Label ").

The U.S. retail division of the company, Samsonite Company Stores LLC, entered 2009 in the protection against creditors and closed as part of a restructuring half of the 173 Samsonite stores in the United States.

In June 2011, Samsonite went to Hong Kong to go public. The company achieved under adverse market conditions, the IPO proceeds in the amount of 1.25 billion U.S. dollars ( 882 million euros ). Samsonite was previously listed to 2002 after a decline in the share price to less than one U.S. dollar as a result of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 on the New York Stock Exchange. After the IPO in 2011, the proportion of CVC declined to Samsonite to " slightly less than 30 percent," the share of Royal Bank of Scotland to " just under 16 percent," four percent belonged to the British Samsonite CEO since 2009, Tim Parker. The latter achieved with the sale of part of its equity stake, Samsonite revenue of 65 million U.S. dollars.

Samsonite Black Label

1999, the high-priced premium collection with Samsonite Black Label luggage, clothing ( "Travel Wear " ) and footwear was launched for each men and women on the Milan-based European office Samonsite SpA. First, for the Italian market thought the brand was expanded in the following years worldwide. Samsonite initially set the British fashion designer Neil Barrett, a former Prada designer, creative director for men's fashion from Black Label and replaced him a year later with the Italian Gigi Vezzola, who also looked after the women's fashion. The Samsonite clothing was partly equipped with practical details for travelers. For the footwear division, the former head of design, Hogan Alberta Serantoni was appointed. As of 2006, a collaboration with British designer Alexander McQueen was offered for luggage. 2007 was launched a Black Label Online Shop. 2008 began a luggage cooperation with the Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf. For Black Label had their own flagship stores, including in London, Berlin, Milan and San Francisco. The shops were closed until the end of the 2000s. The clothing line was discontinued.

Brands

• Samsonite and Samsonite Black Label
• American Tourister (1993 acquired )
• Saturn (low price line, 2005 by American Tourister replaced)
• Trunk & Co. (youth line, closed in 2005 )
• Lark (1984 acquired, discontinued in 2002 )
• Lacoste ( bags and small leather goods license 2001-2011 )
• Timberland ( luggage and bags under license since 2005)
• Y-3 by Adidas ( bags and accessories under license since 2009)