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The Tata Group’s retail company Trent has assigned a capital outlay of ₹150 crore to expand to West Asia and launch its own mass market apparel stores, apart from adding about 50 stores across formats such as Westside and Star Bazaar.
“We have already identified the countries and partners and will definitely have international stores in the coming year. To start with, we will have two-three stores and depending on the response, we will decide how many more stores we want to have in the international markets,” said Trent Chairman Noel Tata at the company’s 64th AGM.
Besides, Trent is gearing up to launch its first private label standalone store, Zudi, in Bengaluru ahead of the festival season. The mass market apparel brand will be in the value format — the first private label to be spun off as a separate store.
“We will have a separate store under Zudi, a mass market value brand, and the first store would be in Bengaluru, measuring 5,000-10,000 sq ft,” added Tata.
With total revenues of ₹1,571.32 crore, Trent has formats like Westside (95 stores across 58 cities), Star (26 stores under Star Daily, Star Market and Star Hyper through its equal joint venture with Tesco), and Landmark (five stores).
It also has two separate joint ventures with the Inditex Group of Spain for stores under Zara (18 stores) and a single Massimo Dutti store, for which it sources the all the merchandise from Spain.
Landmark planWhile the group plans to expand most of its formats, its entertainment format under Landmark is currently on hold.
“We have restructured the entertainment format but it has to evolve a compelling business case for accelerating expansion,” said Tata.
After posting losses, Landmark has been merged with Westside, where it has categories like toys and sports merchandise through its alliance with Sports Zone.
However, Landmark will go online this fiscal on the group’s online marketplace TataCliQ.
Breaking even on for formats like Star Bazaar is also going to be challenging but Trent expects to achieve it in two years.
About GST and its impact on making goods cheaper, Trent is not too confident. “GST is based on the movement of goods and is about going into the details for which forms have to be filled. We are still nervous about its outcome,” said Tata.
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