Biography

Rik Hillaert
Born 30.10.1961
Married, 3 children Kevin, Laura, Tobias
Master of Science in mechanical engineering (KULeuven, 1984)

Career start in 1985  in product development at PICANOL, Ieper  (manufacturer of weaving looms).
Started in 1991 at Samsonite Europe N.V.
1991: tooling manager
End of 1992: Product Development Manager
2008: Director Product Development Hardside

Abstract of presentation

Samsonite is the world leading luggage company. The luggage market is however very competitive. There are some big competitors but also a lot of no-brand products from Asia are all over the market place.
Untill 2 years ago, vauumformed products from ABS and PC were made in Oudenaarde, Belgium. We had a vertically integrated production facility, making our own ABS extrusion and vacuumforming. PC sheet were bought from suppliers.The labour content of this type of suitcases is however high. As a consequence we were not longer competitive with low cost countreys as India and China. The entire department was closed.
All our standard productswith vaccumformed shells are now coming from China or India

However, there is still hope.

1. Coming from a luggage brand, Samsonite is more and more evolving towards a fashion brand. New products are developped for our Samsonite Black Label brand together with top fashion designers. A new line was developped with Alexandre McQueen. The knowledge to produce the moulds is not ready available in Asia. Also asian manufacturers are used to mass production, are not organised to handle these special types of products. The new line was developed in a very short time, all moulds made in Europe, production of shells and assembly happens in Hungry.

2. Together with Propex in Gronau, the KULeuven , and subsidised by the flemish government, Samsonite has developped and patentet a new thermoforming process to be able to deepdraw suitcase shell in a new material, Curv. This material has an extremely high impact strength and is very light (60% lighter than PC, which is the current standard in luggage). Thermoforming was however extremely difficult.
Thanks to this project, we were able to produce our first suitcase with this material; Samsonite Black Label X'Lite.
Samsonite is unique in the luggage market with this material, and surely several new lines will follow soon. All shells are actually produced in Oudenaarde.

Conclusion: In these cases were innovation and flexibility are important, European sources still have a competetive advantage. Main concerns are the reduction of start-up cost (making small series effectively) and the re-use og regrind in these cases where small series are made.