Hard luggage, soft sales: Why your parents’ favourite suitcase brand is falling behind
VIP and Safari each command roughly a third each of India’s organized market with the US brand Samsonite making for the rest, data from VIP Industries’ filings and analysts tracking the stock shows. But in the first nine months of 2025-25, ending December, Safari has overtaken VIP in revenue ( ₹1,574 crore compared to ₹ 1,422 crore).
Safari has also left its rival in the dust on the bourses. Shares of VIP shed nearly 10% at a time the benchmark Nifty 50 expanded more than 50% even after accounting for March’s decline due to the West Asia war.
Safari shareholders saw their company growing market capitalization nearly three times in the same period.Meanwhile, the Indian luggage industry saw a sea change. Between before and after the pandemic, much of the organized luggage market moved from soft fabric suitcases to hard premium luggage even as e-commerce and modern trade unseated local, unorganized shops as the biggest channel, according to industry executives.
A clutch of luggage startups, some founded by former executives of VIP and Samsonite, raised venture capital to kickstart a wave of ‘premiumisation’ in the Indian luggage market, much like how other segments of the economy—from automobiles to electronics and real estate to food—have responded to what is being called the K-shaped recovery after the pandemic.How will this premiumisation wave change the fortunes of the legacy companies? Read on.Today, VIP and Safari stand at a crossroads. VIP confronts a shrinking business as it seems to have missed the premiumisation bus, yielding ground to competitors and slipping into losses.
In the first nine months of 2025-26, its net loss totalled over ₹200 crore.The company has new owners and a new management. They must now bring
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