Demand volatile but still expecting 20% growth over pre-COVID base, says luggage industry leader

Demand in the luggage segment has been volatile due to the pandemic, but this hasn't deterred the expectations of VIP Industries, which is looking at achieving 20 percent growth over its pre-COVID base.

“We will end up with almost about 20 percent growth or thereabouts over the base year that we are considering as 2019-2020,” Anindya Dutta, MD of VIP Industries, told CNBC-TV18 as he discussed his insights on the company's performance and future plans.

Dutta is optimistic about the company's outlook for this fiscal year. He anticipates that VIP Industries will get closer to Rs 2,200 crore in revenue. “We will come very close to the earlier outlook that we gave around Rs 2,200 crore or maybe a little bit lesser than that,” he said.

These projections are based on VIP Industries' strong performance in the first nine months of FY23, where the company achieved a 15.1 percent market share. Dutta's target for the year is in the mid-teens range.

“In the first half of the year, the industry is going to grow anywhere between 10 percent and 15 percent and we would have an ambition of growing faster than the market to gain back some of the share that we had lost in the previous years,” he said.

Travel resumption and the wedding season in the third quarter of this fiscal provided a major boost to VIP Industries.

VIP Industries, which is one of India's leading luggage companies, recently also launched an exchange offer to incentivise customers. This move is expected to boost sales and increase brand loyalty among VIP Industries' customers.

“Whenever we run an exchange offer, it is always a great number spike up that we see because the average cycle of change of baggage is very high and an exchange offer fuels that,” he said.

The stock was down 2.53 percent in the last one week and 7.29 percent in the past month.