Samsonite Corporation
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Formerly called
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Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company (1910–1966) |
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| Société Anonyme | |
| Traded as | : 1910 |
| Founded | Denver, Colorado, USA 1910 |
| Founder | Jesse Shwayder |
| Headquarters |
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (registered office) Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong (financial) |
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Key people
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Ramesh Dungarmal Tainwala, CEO |
| Website | samsonite |
Samsonite International S.A. (: 1910) is an American luggage manufacturer and retailer, with products ranging from large suitcases to small toiletries bags and briefcases. It was founded in Denver. The company's registered office is in Luxembourg and it is listed on the .
The company was founded in Denver, Colorado, USA on March 10, 1910 by Blackhawk, Colorado-born luggage salesman Jesse Shwayder (1882-1970) as the Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company. A religious man, Shwayder named one of his initial cases Samson, after the Biblical strongman, and began using the trademark Samsonite in 1941 for its tapered vulcanized fiber suitcase, introduced in 1939. In 1965 after the Samsonite suitcase became its best-selling product, the company changed its name to Samsonite. For many years the subsidiary Samsonite Furniture Co. made folding chairs and card tables in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
The Shwayder family sold the company to Beatrice Foods in 1973. Samsonite operated with relative independence within Beatrice until 1986, when the company was sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Subsequently, the company went through several changes of ownership in the 1980s and into the 1990s. First, Samsonite was spun off from KKR as part of E-II, which came under the control of American Brands. E-II went through bankruptcy and was renamed Astrum International. In 1993, Astrum purchased American Tourister luggage, complementing Samsonite. In 1995, Astrum split, and an independent Samsonite (now including American Tourister) was once again headquartered in Denver.
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