Once a top retail performer on D-Street, Tata-group owned Trent has been gradually losing steam over the last few months as a combination of mixed earnings and future growth concerns have weighed on the company. Westside, in particular, has been a drag, as Zudio overshadows its performance, retail experts said.
Trent stock crash
The big meltdown for Trent came a few weeks ago when the stock crashed nearly 12% in a single day (on July 4), following an underwhelming quarterly update for Q1FY26. The retailer said it saw standalone revenue growing 20% during the quarter, below the 35% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) it had reported for the last five years. Year-to-date, the stock has fallen 25% on the BSE even as the Sensex has risen 5.75%. The 20% topline growth number was also below Trent’s own long-term target of growing 25% annually, as stated by its chairman Noel Tata at the Annual General Meeting on July 3. The company will report its Q1 results on August 6.
While Trent remains bullish about its fashion and lifestyle segment, saying it will add over 250 stores across formats in FY26, analysts say the additions will be more in Zudio than Westside. The brand (Zudio), launched in 2016, crossed $1 billion (`8,600 crore) in revenue in FY25, according to Trent’s annual filings, doubling its store count in two years. Trent’s overall revenue touched Rs 17,125 crore in FY25, up 38.5% year-on-year.
The retailer did not provide a break-up of Westside’s revenue for the year, adding that both (Westside and Zudio) were operating at scale and engaging with over 100 million consumers. Launched in 1998. analysts estimate Westside’s annual revenue at around Rs 5,000-6,000 crore.
As of 30th June 2025, Trent’s store portfolio included 248 Westside, 766 Zudio (including 2 in UAE) and 29 stores across other lifestyle concepts. Zudio stores are present across 235 cities in the country.”Zudio’s budget-friendly positioning as opposed to Trent’s more premium offerings makes it an attractive draw for consumers in tier-2 and tier-3 markets,” Nuvama said in a recent note on Trent.
Current scenario and future outlook
Retail industry executives that FE spoke to said that Westside has struggled with a “middle-of-the-road” positioning, where price points are in the range of about Rs 1,500-2,000 for men’s and women’s clothing, sitting between the premium and value fashion segments. This segment has borne the brunt of the urban slowdown in recent quarters, experts said, as consumers have sought to reset their priorities amid uncertainty.
Also, value retailers including Zudio are typically below the Rs 1,000-mark in terms of pricing of clothing and accessories, to attract maximum footfalls from families and young consumers. Price points can vary from Rs 49 for a lipstick at Zudio going up to Rs 999 for men’s and women’s apparel. Department store chains such as Shoppers Stop, on the other hand, have a premium pricing strategy, offering a wide range of high-quality and luxury products across fashion and lifestyle.
“Westside has struggled to attract premium consumers at the upper end of the market, where price is not a concern for them. At the same time, budget-conscious consumers have a number of options at the lower end of the market, due to the boom in value retail,” Arvind Singhal, chairman, Technopak, said.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley say that Westside has had fewer store launches in the last few years, with the focus shifting to online sales through its website and Tata Neu and Tata Cliq e-commerce platforms. In the last two years, for instance, the contribution of online sales to Westside’s revenues has grown by 200 basis points from 4% (in FY23) to 6% in FY25. In terms of growth, Westside’s online business was profitable, seeing a volume growth of 41% in FY25, the company said.
Westside store launches, meanwhile, have been slower. In FY24 and FY25, Trent added 30 and 40 new Westside stores each, but consolidated 12 and 24 existing stores respectively during the period. By consolidation, the reference is to a closure or relocation. In Q1 of FY26, Trent launched one new Westside store, but consolidated one existing store, maintaining its FY25 store count of 248. In contrast, Zudio added 203 and 244 new stores each in FY24 and FY25 and consolidated 10 and 24 existing stores respectively during the period.