Tumi (company)
Tumi Inc. is an American luggage manufacturer from New Jersey , which sells high-priced suitcases , bags, luggage, accessories and clothing with a focus on business travelers through upscale retail and around 260 stores worldwide and has been part of Samsonite since 2016 after a company takeover .
Company history
Tumi was founded in 1975 by the American entrepreneur and former marketing manager Charlie Clifford, who was stationed for the American Peace Corps in Peru between 1967 and 1969 , and its business partner, an importer of gift items, in New Jersey. Clifford named his company after the Peruvian ritual knife, Tumi . He initially focused on the import of South American leather luggage. The company had sales of $ 625,000 in its first year with cognac tennis bags and coarse leather travel bags.
In 1983, Tumi expanded its range to include luggage made from black, ballistic nylon, a hard-wearing plastic that DuPont originally developed as a material for flak vests during World War II . In times of steadily increasing business travel by air, aided by the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, American frequent flyers valued the material, which was far less sensitive to leather. For this clientele, the bags were equipped with numerous inner compartments and zippers. A garment bag the size of hand luggage became a best seller. In 1985, the original leather series from South America was abandoned in favor of collections made from finer nappa leather produced by suppliers in Georgia . In the same year, Clifford paid off his partner. The company had sales of nearly four and a half million dollars at the time.
In 1990, the expansion into the European market began. In the early years, Germany was the main European sales market. In 1992 the range was expanded to include briefcases and small leather goods. During this time, the company advertised its products with a lifetime guarantee. The first Tumi store opened its doors in 1997 in Santa Monica ; In 1999 a boutique followed in New York City . In the same year, Tumi introduced the so-called Tumi Tracer , an individual 20-digit code affixed to the item of luggage with which lost luggage can be assigned to the owner. Also in 1999, the cheaper second line T-Tech came onto the market, which was discontinued in 2014. In 2001 the second Japanese Tumi store was opened. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the associated decline in the demand for luggage, Tumi relocated production to other Asian countries.
In 2002 the website tumi.com went online. Clifford took the investment company Oaktree Capital Management on board in 2002 . In 2004, British financial investor Doughty Hanson & Co acquired Tumi for $ 276 million, and Clifford withdrew from the company entirely. The Tumi product guarantee was subsequently reduced to five years. In 2007 there were 50 Tumi stores worldwide. In early 2007, Tumi appointed Nautica fashion brand founder David Chu as the company's first creative director. Chu left Tumi at the end of 2008. In 2010, two Tumi outlets were opened in Germany . Tumi sunglasses have been around since 2011. Doughty Hanson listed Tumi on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012 and sold the last Tumi shares in 2016. Tumi Holdings Inc. is based in South Plainfield, New Jersey. In 2013 Tumi appointed shoe designer George Esquivel as creative director. There is a limited clothing collection for women and men, mainly functional outerwear. In 2016, Samsonite acquired Tumi for $ 1.8 billion. At the end of the 2010s there were over 260 Tumi stores worldwide. Michael Petry was Head of Design at Tumi in 2016. Long-standing Tumi employee Victor Sanz has been the company's creative director since 2017. Tumi's CEO was Laurence Franklin from 2002 and Jerome Griffith from 2009. Since the takeover by Samsonite, the management has been with CEO Ramesh Dungarmal Tainwala.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ How I Did It: Tumi's Charlie Clifford inc.com, May 2011
- ↑ How a Little Luggage Company Took Off fortune.com, August 11, 2014
- ↑ The Tumi Story ( Memento of the original from April 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. tumi.com, Retrieved January 27, 2018
- ↑ US bag manufacturer Tumi comes on the welt.de exchange via price range , April 19, 2012
- ↑ Samsonite buys Tumi - clearing the way for the case merger handelsblatt.com, March 3, 2016
- ↑ The Tumi difference ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. tumi.com, Retrieved January 27, 2018
