India on the forefront of Delsey Paris' Manufacturing Strategy

Delsey Paris, a European premium luggage brand, is looking to make India a manufacturing hub as part of its global strategy to shift half of its production away from Mainland China, according to global CEO Davide Traxler.

India is one of the French brand's fastest growing markets, accounting for 5% of total revenue. In the next three years, the company intends to more than double its revenue. "India is one of the economies where we see a very bright future in the next five years." We're all waiting to see what happens in the United States and Europe, but everyone in India seemed very confident. And this is critical because it has such a large population and market. It is certainly a land where we want more presence, investing more and also sourcing more and purchasing raw materials," said Traxler.

According to a recent Crisil report, India's luggage industry revenue is expected to rise 5% year on year this fiscal, despite a high base effect of 40% growth last fiscal, due to rising penetration of hard luggage made by the organised sector, as well as continued growth in tourism and corporate travel. "There was a lot of concentration in mainland China, but we have moved about 50% of our manufacturing and distribution it to other countries in Southeast Asia and India is part of this rebalancing of our production," Traxler said.

"India is doing well and overall the company is doing well. We have more than doubled the turnover in the past two years and India is part of this trend," the executive said. Traxler said that the consumer has changed its approach towards the purchase of luggage.