Luxury Brand Montblanc Sees Opportunity in Airports and Smaller Cities

Luxury brand Montblanc is looking at airports and smaller cities as new opportunities.

In its effort to boost sales of its writing instruments, bags, perfume and accessories in India, the luxury brand is opening stores in airports and in Tier 2 cities, the Economic Times (ET) reported Thursday (Dec. 29).

“We will be expanding to newer markets and newer cities and channels looking very promising, where we see expansion happening, is travel retail,” Neeraj Walia, managing director and CEO of Montblanc India Retail Private Limited, told ET.

The company is targeting airport retail stores — both duty-free and duty-paid — because those locations allow it to engage with customers it wouldn’t see in a traditional store and because there’s a growing number of airports opening in the country, according to the report.

It’s looking at smaller cities, too, because there is demand from customers in those locations.

Montblanc also sees younger buyers as a potential new and growing market and is considering ways to reach them, the report said.

“Younger generations are looking around for beautiful stories, whether it’s on their wrist or in their hand while writing or in the bag which they are carrying,” Walia said in the report. “That is how we are bringing new products with different stories.”

As PYMNTS reported Oct. 22, the world’s leading luxury retailers and brands have been recording strong sales results.

LVMH, Hermes and Kering, for example, have reported earnings that not only show that the world’s wealthy still have an appetite for luxury but that they also still have the means on hand to buy expensive shoes, bags and gowns.

“For the moment, we don’t see any sign of slowdown in any of our markets,” Hermes Executive Vice President of Finance Eric du Halgouet said in October.

Beyond that, the luxury retail sector is expecting more Chinese tourists after three years of pandemic restrictions.

China announced Monday (Dec. 26) that it will lift international travel restrictions in January. This will allow the return of Chinese tourism, which is the world’s largest source of tourist spending, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday (Dec. 27).

These tourists also account for a large share of purchases of luxury goods. In the pre-pandemic year of 2018, Chinese consumers purchased about one-third of the world’s luxury goods, according to another Tuesday WSJ report.