Port Designs Understands Changing Needs and Evolves to Meet Expectations

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Port Designs is one of the world’s leading players in manufacturing luggage and accessories for technology products. It distributes in more than 60 countries worldwide, the company markets a broad range of products for tablets, laptop cases, backpacks, and trolleys, etc. Aloysius Dlima, Sales Manager, MEA and INDIA, speaks about the strategies Port Design had taken up to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the entire travel industry. How did Port Design (re)strategize the baggage and accessory business during these turbulent years?

Port Designs did anticipate the COVID-19 pandemic impact quite early, by having a contingency strategy, support with our factories, and strong long-standing partners over decades.

It has been beneficial for us to rationalize our business by producing key products in more volume to reach a scale economy on the market. We had to “hit the spot” so to say, with the change from working from office to working from home that introduced a flexible working culture.

Aloysius Dlima, Sales Manager, MEA and India

The example is given by ergonomics range or the desktop connectivity range for accessory business or new eco range as far as the baggage is concerned.

Describe your product line-up including the custom-made ones for businesses

We have been recognized traditionally for our carry cases and our motto “Carry and Protect.” However, in the last decade, we have added into our portfolio accessories, which has been hugely successful with our Global corporate partners. The pandemic simply accelerated our plans on expansion for our range – specifically the Ergonomics and connectivity ranges.

We introduced ergonomic products, suitable for home and office, guided by professionals in the health industry, to help with long hours at the desk. Within connectivity, we developed and delivered options of docking stations along with multiple accessories for Home Office culture.

Which are the channels Port Design uses to operate the business (online/offline)? Also briefly tell us your channel strategies

From a global perspective, Port Designs has been recognized as a leader in both retail and corporate channels where we can provide the specifics solutions at an IT’ strategic level whatever the size of the business.

In the Middle East, we have been strong in retail since we started. We started the corporate channel in 2017 and it has been extremely good for us. We have used our Global partnerships within the Banking, Consulting, Insurance, and education channels while starting up new partnerships with the Transport and Public sectors. One of our major partners in the region remains the Telecom industry and National Airline industry.

Give us some insights into your concept of “Desktop Replacement” and its outcome

As Port Designs, we have always looked to evolve to provide solutions to our customers’ requirements. We started with a huge range of carrying cases for all devices, our USP – “A designs studio in France to create options for personalization to customers,” along with our “Carry and Protect” quality.

With requests from our global partners, we ventured into a new very crowded vertical of accessories, but we did differentiate immediately, with quality and range accepted by our corporate partners. This rolled out and became part of our ever-evolving portfolio.

With the pandemic once again the world changed, and Port Designs did what we do best, “evolve.” We made sure our partners had every possible option to fit into the new Flex & Home office trend.