Tata Group retailer Trent is looking to build a broader portfolio of brands beyond its flagship Westside and Zudio chains as it pursues a ten-fold increase in revenue in the coming years, chairman Noel Tata told shareholders on Tuesday at the company’s 74th virtual annual general meeting (AGM).
Trent closed FY26 with consolidated revenue of Rs 20,074 crore and net profit of Rs 1,721 crore, up 17.2% and 12.2% each versus FY25. Tata, also the chairman of Tata Trusts, told shareholders on Tuesday that he would step down as Trent’s chairman this calendar year in keeping with the Tata group’s governance norms of retiring from non-executive board positions at 70. Tata turns 70 in November.
Tata said that Trent had already achieved over 2.5 times growth in revenue and profitability since he had outlined the 10x vision at the firm’s 71st AGM in 2023, but that two brands alone would not be enough to achieve the target.
Tata also indicated that the Rs 2,500 crore equity fund-raise approved by the company’s board last month would be utilised in building warehouses, acquiring real estate and upgrading its store network apart from automating the supply-chain by deploying artificial intelligence across processes.
“We are quite clear that we will not be able to reach our aspirations with only two brands. We will need many more brands, all catering to different segments of customer demand,” Tata told shareholders. Trent already operates Westside in the premium lifestyle segment, value fashion chain Zudio, and Star in food and grocery, while Samoh and Burnt Toast are being tested as emerging concepts and would require 2-3 more years before they could be scaled up, he said.
Tata also charted out aggressive expansion plans for Westside and Zudio including an over two-fold growth in Westside stores to 700 (from 300 now) and an over five-fold growth in Zudio stores to 5,000 (from 963 now) in the future.
To achieve this, Trent was comfortable adding 50 Westside stores, 200-250 Zudio stores and 25-40 Star stores annually over the coming years, he said.
Tata also indicated that a significant number of existing Star stores were being reconfigured as part of the company’s drive to give it a bigger push. The Star portfolio includes 84 stores managed by Trent Hypermarket Private (THPL) and Fiora Hypermarket (FHL), a subsidiary of Trent.
Tata also signalled a larger international push in the coming years for Trent’s retail brands, after launching six Zudio stores in the UAE over the last two years.
“We’ve dipped our foot into international waters. We’re testing our ability there,” Tata said. “We will incubate international for another year, get it to a place where we’re confident to grow quickly and then we will step on the accelerator. I think it would be nice to have two brands from India going across and being seen in international markets as well,” he added.
Tata said India remains the primary growth engine for the company, noting that Trent still accounts for only around 2% of the addressable retail market. “We now operate a portfolio of 1,286 stores across 321 cities. In doing so, we engaged with more than 120 million customers.
The scale we have built is significant. However, we still have a huge amount of headroom,” he said, adding that the company’s performance would continue to depend on offering relevant and aspirational products while responding to changing customer needs.