Retail manufacturer changes strategy, aiming for growth

A luggage and bag store isn’t exactly top of mind during lockdowns.

So Bentley & Co. Ltd. quietly tightened operations and positioned itself for a post-pandemic comeback.

The retailer’s predecessor, Bentley Leathers Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection in late 2019. It then began cutting its store count, overhauling its online platform, upgrading its warehouse and distribution network and slashing the brands and styles it sells.

The result is a more curated, less cluttered shopping experience that blends timeless luggage styles with new candy-coloured suitcases and vegan handbags, the company said.

“Fashion doesn’t stop at handbags,” Bentley president Walter Lamothe said in an interview. “Luggage can be useful and reliable — but it can also look good and be affordable.”

The company’s streamlined operations and fresh new look appear to be paying off.

As travel rebounded and airlines struggled with lost and delayed bags this fall, the Canadian luggage stalwart stepped up to help distressed travellers.

Its backpacks were waiting when schools reopened and its handbags and accessories were ready as office work and social outings returned.

Now the Montreal-based company plans to take its new concept outside of Canada.

Bentley is plotting an international expansion that will tap into an underserved market that hovers between high-end luxury and big box stores.

“We have not seen an affordable, approachable brand that curates travel the way we have a vision for it,” Lamothe said. “There are high-end and low-end stores and wholesalers but you don’t have a retailer in the middle.”

Sales in the luggage and bags category have ballooned by more than 20 per cent this year as of the end of September, according to the J.C. Williams Group National Retail Bulletin and Statistics Canada.

That comes after sales jumped 34 per cent over the same time span in 2021 and dropped 27.5 per cent for the same period of 2020.

To take its new look outside of Canada, Bentley is in talks with wholesalers to potentially start selling its private brands through other stores by 2024, with the aim of opening several stores in the U.S. and Europe shortly after.

Outside of Canada, the stores will be called Tracker.

“Bentley is landlocked,” Lamothe said of the company’s store name in Canada, noting that other companies — such as Bentley Motors Ltd. — own the Bentley trademark outside the country.

The Tracker stores will focus on travel luggage and accessories, opening in airports to start.

The first Tracker store was launched in the Montreal airport last year, which features a vending machine outside the store with small travel accessories.

More Tracker vending machines are planned for airports and train stations in the new year, while a second Tracker store is slated to open in Quebec City in early 2023 as a test site close to the company’s Montreal head office.