19 January 2004
DOHA: The Indian luggage giant, VIP Industries Ltd, proposes to turn the chore of buying a suitcase into an experience for customers, as it looks to strengthen its hold on the GCC market.
With Doha ranking second behind Dubai in GCC business for the company, it plans to convert its store on Salwa road here into a ‘Travel Centre.’
“We recently conducted a survey seeking first responses from people on the mention of ‘luggage’ and ‘travel.’ For the former, they had nothing but negative thoughts, but the second evoked ideas of fun and adventure. That’s where the concept of the Travel Centre’ was born,” said Neeraj Dhingra, deputy general manager, international sales, VIP.
Dhingra was in Doha to give away sales achievement awards to leading dealers and institutions selling VIP luggage for the local distributors, Gulf Incon. The awards ceremony was held at Ramada Hotel yesterday.
Speaking to reporters, Dhingra said the Travel Centre would offer free travel advice to customers. “It will have a foreign exchange convertor and consultants will offer free travel tips on airline baggage rules, security regulations, and other matters to make travel easier and less of a hassle,” said Dhingra. He said the Travel Centre would also sell travel accessories like various specifications of plugs from electrical and electronic devices, and special comfort pillows. Informa-tion on various travel destinations would also be available.
The centres are now being introduced in India and soon they will come to the Gulf. In the immediate future the ambience of the store would be re-done in tune with the “VIP World” concept that allows for more relaxed shopping. According to Dhingra, the company is now focusing on design and trying to come up with premium brands. “The undisputed world leader is Samsonite, but it has just a seven per cent share of the global market. We, along with some other brands, come in second with a share of 0.7 per cent. So you see that luggage is now becoming a commodity and we want to draw away from the pack with high-quality premium products,” he said. The mushrooming hypermarkets in the region have changed shopping habits and tastes, and taken people away from the Souqs. These tastes have to be matched with superior products, he added.
He pointed out that VIP is launching several new ranges this year, including the “Buddy” range of schoolbags for children and the “Footloose” range of soft bags for the youth.
Ganesh Srinivasan, general manager, Gulf Incon, said his firm had recorded a 40 per cent growth in sales volumes and a 23 per cent growth in sales revenue last year. He expected that the growth would continue steadily.
Speaking about the marketing efforts, Srinivasan referred to a tie-up with Q-Jam to install digital jukeboxes in popular restaurants and shopping malls. This was another attempt at targeting the youth, he said.
He described the special promotion during the last Winter Festival as a “great success” in which the company sold more than a thousand pieces of luggage. A special set is about to be introduced exclusively for summer travel this year, Srinivasan added.
Later, performance awards were given away to three retail outlets in the “Super Sales Achiever” category, another three in the “Institutional Sales” category and six in the “Valued Dealer” segment.
DOHA: The Indian luggage giant, VIP Industries Ltd, proposes to turn the chore of buying a suitcase into an experience for customers, as it looks to strengthen its hold on the GCC market.
With Doha ranking second behind Dubai in GCC business for the company, it plans to convert its store on Salwa road here into a ‘Travel Centre.’
“We recently conducted a survey seeking first responses from people on the mention of ‘luggage’ and ‘travel.’ For the former, they had nothing but negative thoughts, but the second evoked ideas of fun and adventure. That’s where the concept of the Travel Centre’ was born,” said Neeraj Dhingra, deputy general manager, international sales, VIP.
Dhingra was in Doha to give away sales achievement awards to leading dealers and institutions selling VIP luggage for the local distributors, Gulf Incon. The awards ceremony was held at Ramada Hotel yesterday.
Speaking to reporters, Dhingra said the Travel Centre would offer free travel advice to customers. “It will have a foreign exchange convertor and consultants will offer free travel tips on airline baggage rules, security regulations, and other matters to make travel easier and less of a hassle,” said Dhingra. He said the Travel Centre would also sell travel accessories like various specifications of plugs from electrical and electronic devices, and special comfort pillows. Informa-tion on various travel destinations would also be available.
The centres are now being introduced in India and soon they will come to the Gulf. In the immediate future the ambience of the store would be re-done in tune with the “VIP World” concept that allows for more relaxed shopping. According to Dhingra, the company is now focusing on design and trying to come up with premium brands. “The undisputed world leader is Samsonite, but it has just a seven per cent share of the global market. We, along with some other brands, come in second with a share of 0.7 per cent. So you see that luggage is now becoming a commodity and we want to draw away from the pack with high-quality premium products,” he said. The mushrooming hypermarkets in the region have changed shopping habits and tastes, and taken people away from the Souqs. These tastes have to be matched with superior products, he added.
He pointed out that VIP is launching several new ranges this year, including the “Buddy” range of schoolbags for children and the “Footloose” range of soft bags for the youth.
Ganesh Srinivasan, general manager, Gulf Incon, said his firm had recorded a 40 per cent growth in sales volumes and a 23 per cent growth in sales revenue last year. He expected that the growth would continue steadily.
Speaking about the marketing efforts, Srinivasan referred to a tie-up with Q-Jam to install digital jukeboxes in popular restaurants and shopping malls. This was another attempt at targeting the youth, he said.
He described the special promotion during the last Winter Festival as a “great success” in which the company sold more than a thousand pieces of luggage. A special set is about to be introduced exclusively for summer travel this year, Srinivasan added.
Later, performance awards were given away to three retail outlets in the “Super Sales Achiever” category, another three in the “Institutional Sales” category and six in the “Valued Dealer” segment.
© The Peninsula 2004
