Samsonite buys premium Italian accesories retailer

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 5, 2015

The world’s largest travel luggage company on Friday completed the sale of Chic Accent, a premium Italian retailer selling handbags, travel luggage and business products. The deal, a total cash consideration of €8.5 million (around $9.5 million), furthers Samsonite’s on-going strategy to strengthen its operations in Italy.

Ramesh Tainwala, Chief Executive Officer of Samsonite, valued Chic Accent as a excellent distribution platform to retail Samsonite International’s brands.

“We are planning on keeping all the elements of its highly successful formula, including the Chic Accent name and its store and merchandising concepts. Moreover, we intend to leverage the chain’s reputation for carrying some of the best Italian ladies’ fashion handbag brands to expand our presence in non-travel categories, including handbags, accessories and business products,” said the CEO.

Chic Accent operates 31 shops in Italy, located in attractive shopping centers. It retails accessories labels such as Moschino, Armani, Pinko and CK Calvin Klein, as well as Samsonite.

In 2014, Chic Accent had net sales of €15.2 million (around $17.5 million), rising 10.1% from the previous year.