Trent scripts a new retail story with Zudio

Retail company targets small town consumers

- VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO

TATA FIRM SHEDS SLOW-MOVER TAG

THE TATA-OWNED retail company Trent likes keeping things simple. A no-frills, no-fuss strategy defines its store launches and new initiatives.

And in a market known for seeking media mileage, Trent, much like its chairman, Noel Tata, keeps a low profile. Yet, beneath the quiet veneer is a company aiming for the best. Trent has been scripting a new retail story, putting small towns such as Vapi and Godhra in Gujarat, Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, Dibrugarh in Assam, Khammam in Telangana, Thrissur and Pattambi in Kerala, Davanagare in Karnataka, Hanumangarh in Rajasthan and Sangli and Solapur in Maharashtra on the retail map.

The precision with which Trent has been executing its business strategy, notably, over the last two years, after it emerged from a pandemic-induced slowdown in FY21, has taken the stock market by storm. Year-to-date, the Trent stock has appreciated nearly 53% on the BSE and remains an investor favourite, even as consolidated topline has nearly doubled in two years to ₹8,242 crore at the end of the fiscal ended March 2023 and net profit has grown over four times during the period to ₹445 crore, according to the company's financial statements.

Analysts at Motilal Oswal expect Trent to cross ₹10,000-crore in consolidated topline in the next one year, growing at about 31-32% per annum over the next few years. The company may touch ₹15,000 crore in terms of topline in the next two years and near the ₹19,000-croremark in terms of turnover in three years, the brokerage said in a recent report on the company.