Description
Luggage Center and Stern’s Travel Shop are specialty retail chain with
thirteen stores selling travel goods including luggage, travel accessories and
business cases. Our stores are located in regional malls, urban free standing
and strip malls. Our average store is 3000 square feet.
History
Luggage Center and Stern’s Travel Shop have been in business serving
the SFO and Bay Area locations travel needs since 1927.
Market Position
Luggage Center is the largest chain of luggage stores in the SFO and Bay Area.
We hold the dominant position in these areas of travel goods market and carry’s
largest selection of Luggage, Travel Accessories and Business Cases. We sell moderate
to upper goods with concentrations in Tumi, Hartman, Swiss Army, Briggs &
Riley, Andiamo, Paragon, Travelpro, Samsonite and Atlantic. We offer the largest
selection of travel accessories in the Seattle Area.
Demographics
75% of our business comes from the following customer base: these customers
are about 45 years old, evenly split male to female. Household income averages
$125,000 per year. They travel for business, via airline, at least five times
per year. About two thirds of their purchases are for business, one third for
vacation needs.
Luggage Center is a destination business. The customer who walks through our
door has decided they have a need for travel products and decided to fill those
needs at our store.
Competitive Advantages
Convenience
We have more stores in the Bay Area than any of our competitors. We ticket
all our merchandise at the lowest net price rather than play the shell game of
“on sale, off sale” that most retailer do. This creates a great convenience
for our customers because they get the best price today and every day rather than
having to wait for a “sale”.
Vision
Luggage Center will look to strengthen our competitive edge in the market
by opening new locations or purchasing our competitors existing locations. We
are currently looking at opportunities to open more stores around Bay Area. We
will continue to gain market share through growth opportunities, superior customer
service and competitive pricing.
Replenishment System
We have developed the most sophisticated, automated merchandise reorder and
distribution system in the travel goods industry.
Our system allows us to turn our inventory over almost four times per year
compared with the industry average two times. Our inventory is about 85% current,
inline merchandise, less than 160 days old.
Management Team
Rupinder Dhillon, CEO
Rupinder oversees the entire operation including but not limited to product
selection, lease negotiations and vendor negotiations. Rupinder has over 20 years
of retail experience.
Paul Brusaschetti, General Manager
Paul oversees all of the day-to-day operations. Including all aspects of Human
Resources, assortment selection, vendor negotiations, stock management and inventory
control. Paul has over 23 years of retail experience with Luggage Center, The
Nature Company and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels.
Don Martin, Planning/Customer Service
Don is responsible for the weekly replenishment ordering system, any customer
service issues and is the liaison between the corporate office and the stores.
Don has over 28 years of retail experience with Luggage Center, K-Mart and Office
Max.
Satyam Pulmamidi, IT Manager
Satya is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of all of our information
systems, ecommerce and computers. Satya has over six years of experience with
Luggage Center, Al l Soft Technologies and E-Trade
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