Trunki owners mull sale after less than a year

Heroes, the owner of kids’ luggage brand Trunki, is looking for a buyer for the business, a report has claimed.

The 2020 start-up, which has raised over £200 million to buy digital brands, is working with its advisers to examine a range of options, according to Sky News.

Advisors at Houlihan Lokey have approached a range of potential debt and equity investors although a sale of the company was not certain to be its shareholders’ preferred option, the report said.

Heroes, which was founded as an aggregator business and positions itself as the home of brands “loved by families worldwide”, bought the Trunki brand for around £12 million from BFG just under a year ago. It also owns Cherish, a maker of products for babies and young infants, and Baby Uma, which sells pushchair accessories.

Trunki has an interesting history. Known to be one of the TV programme Dragons Den’s most successful ‘rejects’, the kid-friendly suitcases quickly became highly popular at launch and have become a familiar sight at airports all over the world.

When the business was acquired just under a year ago, Trunki had sold over five million kids’ sit-on, ride-along suitcases and built a successful portfolio of travel gear, with the group’s revenue having grown 68% to reach £6.4 million in 2022