- Noel Tata plans to retire as Trent chairman, highlighting leadership transition.
- Trent aims to expand aggressively with 50 Westside and 200-250 Zudio stores yearly.
- Westside targets 700 stores; Zudio plans growth to around 5,000 stores across India.
Noel Tata's eventual retirement as chairman of Trent and the retailer's aggressive store expansion plans emerged as key themes from the company's annual general meeting, highlighting management's confidence in the long-term growth runway for its fashion and value-retail businesses.
Despite being one of India's fastest-growing retailers, Trent said it still commands only around 2% of the country's fashion and lifestyle retail market, showing the scale of the opportunity ahead.
The company noted that since laying out its ambition in 2023 to grow revenue tenfold over time, it has already delivered 2.5 times revenue growth and nearly three times the profit growth, putting it well ahead of its original trajectory.
Store Expansion Plans
Trent plans to add around 50 Westside stores annually, while continuing the rapid rollout of 200-250 Zudio stores every year. The company also expects to add 25-40 Star stores annually.
Management outlined an ambitious long-term vision for its key formats. Westside has the potential to grow to around 700 stores, compared with roughly 300 currently. The bigger opportunity lies in Zudio, where Trent believes the format can eventually support around 5,000 stores across India, up from nearly 960 stores today.
While like-for-like growth has moderated due to store densification and the increasing contribution from newer outlets, management reiterated its expectation of returning to early double-digit like-for-like growth over the medium term.
Beyond its core businesses, Trent continues to refine emerging formats such as Samoh and Burnt Toast, while identifying categories such as footwear, innerwear, beauty and lab-grown diamonds as important future growth drivers.
The company also indicated that both Westside and Zudio could eventually be taken overseas, opening up another avenue for growth beyond the domestic market.
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