In the world of business travel, where status is often telegraphed through lounge access and airline tiers, there is another, subtler signal of experience: the bag.
On the baggage carousel at Heathrow or Changi, amid a sea of scuffed polycarbonate and hopeful optimism, certain cases carry themselves differently. They look as though they have been somewhere, and are ready to go again.
For Richard Krulik, chief executive of Briggs & Riley, that quiet resilience is no accident. It is the product of family history, engineering discipline and an almost forensic curiosity about how travellers actually move through the world.
A legacy forged in survival
Krulik’s story begins long before he entered the luggage trade. His grandfather fled Austria during the Holocaust and, having rebuilt his life in the United States, founded London Leather in 1940. It was, in every sense, a business born of survival.
“Business was always part of the conversation,” Krulik reflects. “My grandfather and father instilled a strong work ethic, fairness and values that have shaped everything we’ve done.”
That intergenerational continuity is more than sentiment. It manifests in employee loyalty, in long tenures, and in a leadership philosophy built on reciprocity. “My staff knows they can count on me just as I know I can count on them,” he says. “That builds trust.”
In an era when many brands pivot with each quarterly trend cycle, that emphasis on trust feels almost radical.
An accidental career in luggage
When Krulik joined the family business in 1987, it was not part of a master plan. He had imagined corporate life as static, desks and warehousing rather than design and global supply chains. It was a summer trip to Asia with his father that altered his perception.
“I saw the breadth of it, design, manufacturing, marketing, sales. It opened my eyes,” he recalls. After completing his MBA, he agreed to “kick the tyres”. Nearly four decades later, he is still at the wheel.
That immersion proved crucial when, in 2000, he acquired Briggs & Riley. At the time, the operation was deeply hands-on. Warehousing, logistics, customer service, it was all in-house.
“Those early years were invaluable,” he says. “When you’re managing repairs and dealing directly with travellers, you see very quickly where things succeed and where they fall short.”
The power of a promise
From that proximity emerged one of the brand’s defining features: its unconditional lifetime guarantee. Not a limited warranty hedged with caveats, but a commitment to repair functional damage for life — even if an airline was responsible.
For business travellers accustomed to navigating disruption — delayed flights, tight connections, aggressive baggage handling — such a promise resonates. It reframes luggage from disposable commodity to long-term companion.
“The lightbulb moment,” Krulik says, “was realising that traveller frustrations are universal. Once we focused relentlessly on solving those problems, we knew it could resonate globally.”
Today Briggs & Riley operates across North America, Europe and Asia, with a particularly strong following among corporate road warriors who prioritise reliability over flash.
The CEO at the carousel
Krulik is, by training, an engineer. He cannot help but observe luggage in the wild.
“I’m less focused on how a bag looks and more on how it’s being used,” he admits. “You can tell a lot by how easily someone moves through an airport, or whether they’re struggling with a handle or wheels.”
Airports, he argues, are the ultimate stress test. A bag’s design should disappear into the background. “When luggage is doing its job properly, the traveller isn’t thinking about it at all.”
He frequently approaches fellow passengers to ask about their cases, a habit that has yielded both candid criticism and effusive praise. At one dinner party, a stranger declared that her Briggs & Riley case had “changed her life”.
For a CEO, that level of emotional attachment is revealing. Luggage, after all, is an object that accompanies moments of consequence: career milestones, family reunions, personal reinventions.
What business travellers want now
The business travel landscape has shifted markedly since the pandemic. Hybrid working has blurred the lines between corporate obligation and leisure intent. “Bleisure” is no longer a marketing buzzword but a structural reality.
Krulik sees that reflected in buying behaviour. “Business travellers aren’t choosing between weight, durability or organisation, they want it all working together,” he says. “Time is their most valuable currency.”
Briggs & Riley’s CX® compression-expansion system, which allows travellers to expand a case for packing and compress it back to carry-on dimensions, is a direct response to that need for efficiency. Similarly, the brand’s Outsider® handle design, mounted externally to create a flat interior packing surface, reflects an obsession with usable space.
Hybrid working has also driven growth in the company’s H·T·A (Here, There, Anywhere) collection: premium day bags designed for commutes, co-working spaces and longer trips alike. Features such as RFID-blocking pockets and quick-access compartments acknowledge modern travel rituals — security lanes, device checks, digital wallets.
Interestingly, while generational preferences differ superficially, Krulik observes convergence around quality. Drawing on research from Bain & Company indicating that Gen Z will account for nearly a third of luxury purchases by 2030, he notes a growing appetite among younger travellers for investment pieces.
“They’re leading the shift toward fewer, better products,” he says. Millennials and Gen Z view premium luggage not as indulgence but as rational long-term value — especially when backed by a lifetime guarantee.
Gen X and Baby Boomers, meanwhile, prioritise reliability born of experience. Across cohorts, there is increasing scepticism toward disposable design.
Technology: subtle, not showy
The luggage industry has flirted with overt “smart” technologym GPS trackers, built-in batteries, app integrations. The results have been mixed, not least because airline regulations have tightened around lithium-ion batteries.
Krulik’s view is pragmatic. “Technology must earn its place,” he says. “If it adds complexity without genuine benefit, it won’t last.”
He sees the future in quieter integration, smarter organisation systems, improved compression, material science innovations, rather than gimmickry. Engineering, not novelty, remains the foundation.
Sustainability through longevity
Sustainability, increasingly central to procurement decisions in corporate travel policies, is another area where the brand leans on durability.
“For us, sustainability starts with longevity,” Krulik explains. “The most sustainable bag is the one you don’t have to replace.”
Repairability is designed into the product architecture. The company favours screws over rivets to facilitate component replacement — a seemingly small choice with significant lifecycle implications. By encouraging customers to repair rather than discard, Briggs & Riley positions itself within the circular economy conversation without resorting to greenwashing.
Materials are also evolving, with recycled fabrics incorporated into newer lines. Yet Krulik resists framing sustainability as a trend. “It’s about responsibility,” he says. “Standing behind what we make.”
Travel as curiosity
Despite decades on the road, Krulik’s appetite for travel remains undimmed. Australia, New Zealand and the Galápagos sit high on his bucket list. His packing advice is characteristically practical: travel light, stick to mix-and-match colours, and always leave your expandable case unexpanded on departure to accommodate acquisitions.
It is advice born not of theory but repetition, thousands of sectors flown, countless carousels observed.
The brand of the future
Asked what he hopes Briggs & Riley will represent to the next generation, Krulik returns to trust. “Travel is unpredictable. Our role is to remove friction.”
In a business travel ecosystem grappling with sustainability mandates, hybrid rhythms and ever-tightening schedules, frictionless reliability may be the ultimate luxury.
At a time when many brands chase algorithmic relevance, Briggs & Riley’s strategy feels almost analogue: build better, repair responsibly, honour promises. In doing so, it taps into something deeper than trend, the human desire for certainty amid transit.
On the carousel, that difference is visible. Not ostentatious, not shouting for attention, but quietly assured.
For seasoned business travellers, that assurance is priceless.