Briggs & Riley is considered among the premier international makers of luggage and business cases.

With a strong customer base around the world, the company’s main focus is making sure travellers are equipped with a durable product to meet the realities of travel. 

Here Breaking Travel News chats with Richard Krulik, chief executive of Briggs & Riley, to discover more about the brand and what it brings to the international hospitality market.

Breaking Travel News: The Krulik family has a century long connection to the travel goods industry, dating back to Vienna in the early nineteenth century. What has that experience allowed you to bring to your current role?

Richard Krulik: I think the pride of knowing my family came from the luggage world has created a passion and enthusiasm for wanting to continue that legacy.

My grandfather was a very creative and engineering minded person and I think some of that seems to be in my blood.

BTN: Your personal background is in product design – how important is that element of the process to Briggs & Riley?

RK: It’s hugely important.

We make solving customers problems a fundamental part of everything we do and building products as well as services that can do that is the key to our brand.

Having an engineering background helps a lot when we’re trying to figure out how to conceptualise and develop the best luggage possible.

BTN: How have the expectations of travellers changed over the past few years; there has been a move to personalisation and technical facilitation in the wider hospitality market – has this been the case in your sector?

RK: I think there is a steady progression to keep pushing the boundaries of innovation for real solutions that have staying power and which make a traveller’s life less stressful.

Our CX technology, for example, helps people carry on more when travelling, so they can avoid checking luggage if they wish to do so – due to the progressively kinetic pace of modern life, this is becoming more and more important to both business and leisure travellers as it increases speed in transit and helps with cost savings from bag fees.

Purchasing luggage with personalisation is not only a desire to ID one’s bag for security, it’s also a way to feel a sense of pride. 

BTN: Briggs & Riley has recently unveiled its range for Christmas 2019 – what is on offer this year?

RK: Our brand is all about trust.

In addition to our lifetime warranty, another example in line with this mantra is a truth in pricing policy so we don’t play the constant phony high/low price game like most other luggage brands.

That said, we do have a programme in the United States that helps the consumer save money during the holiday period.

This year, our programme is $100 off any bag that is $499 or higher.

That’s a great value that I think our consumers will very much appreciate when joining the Briggs family.

Our brand mission is to create lifelong customers, and this is a step toward proving that opportunity for a wider audience of demanding travellers.

More Information

Owned by US Luggage, a privately owned and operated family company, with headquarters on Long Island, New York, Briggs & Riley and its parent company are acclaimed for innovation, performance and service, and specifically for backing every bag they make with an unconditional lifetime performance warranty; the only one of its kind in the industry.

Find out more on the official website.