About Us
OUR STORY
If you grew up in Durban, the chances are you or someone you know has stepped into a Gopals Bags & Luggage store sometime in their lives. Selling the best suitcases, leather bags, handbag and wallets, their stores are spread throughout Durban and offer the most trendiest bags from different parts of the world.
The business first started off in 1972 on Durban’s Beatrice Street as a shoe store that sold and repaired leather shoes to customers. It was a small store run by Mr. and Mrs. Gopal who lived in the flat directly above. In the 1970s, the heart and soul of retail was found in Durban’s historic Grey Street and its surrounding avenues. Here you would find jewellers, barbers, tailors, shoemakers and other merchants at work, running their businesses that were passed down from one generation to the next. Combining their passion and commitment to grow their business, Mr. and Mrs. Gopal soon expanded their leather range to include wallets, purses, handbags and suitcases
The first stand-alone Gopals Bags & Luggage store opened its doors in The Victoria Street Market in 1990. By now the business had moved on from shoes and started carrying luggage and leather goods from different brands. In 1992, they opened in what was formerly West Street, Durban’s premiere shopping street at the time. This store put them on the map as everyone who wanted to shop in Durban would stroll down West Street to see the best of what Durban had to offer.
Over the years, the trend in retail started to take a change with the advent of shopping malls opening up. Soon more and more people were starting to choose the convenience and multi-offering brought in by new shopping centres. Picking up on this trend from their customers, the family expanded their business to The Workshop in 1996 and later in 2000 by opening a store at The Pavilion, Durban’s biggest shopping complex at the time. A year later, a super-regional mall that was going to mark the beginning of a new urban development opened in the midst of Durban’s sugar cane plantations in Umhlanga. Not wanting to miss out on this exciting opportunity to expand their business towards Durban’s North Coast, they opened a store at Gateway, Theatre of Shopping. In 2008, a branch at Westwood Mall was opened and in 2016, a store in Galleria Mall was opened. Gopals Bags & Luggage now had their foot firmly planted in Durban. In 2017, their online store went live and now customers from all over the world could shop at Gopals Bags & Luggage. A store in Pietermaritzburg’s Liberty Midlands Mall was opened to expand their reach inland as well.
In 2020, the business took a great knock from the Covid 19 pandemic and the family had to re-strategize by closing certain stores and focus on their most important ones. The Gopals family is committed to offering the best travel and leather bags to their customers with the best expert advice and customer service.
So where to next? Stay tuned.
