The Hindu Business Line : Trent to launch 16,000 sq ft value apparel format store this fiscal

Mumbai, Aug. 18 Trent Ltd, the retail company of the Tata Group, is gearing up to enter the value apparel segment this fiscal with the launch of its first store at Kalyan, a suburb of Mumbai. “We should be ready with our first value format store before the end of this financial year. Our pilot store will get launched early next year,” stated an official from Trent.

Its value store in Kalyan is expected to be 16,000 sq ft in size and would be stocking apparels across all segments. “We have already got our supply chain in place and the apparel will be sourced from our existing network,” stated the Official. Besides, there is also a possibility of sourcing from the UK-based retailer Tesco, which has recently entered the cash and carry business in the country. In fact, Tesco has signed a franchisee agreement with Trent’s Star Bazaar (the discount hyper market) and latter is will be its biggest customer.

Bringing in its private labels across a range of men’s, women’s and kidswear apparel, Trent would develop its ‘yet to be named’ value brand indigenously. “In value-based retail, people are not necessarily brand conscious, unlike in high-end retailing. We would be developing our own brands in this segment,” added the Trent official. Trent has taken a conscious decision to build its own brands even for its existing mid-end fashion apparel format under Westside.

Down the price chain

Targeting the lower income customers in tier II and III cities primarily, Trent is segmenting its customers based on its prices across its retail formats. While its Westside stores are targeting the mid-end segment, its new value stores would go a notch lower in the price chain. “We have a definite set of consumers who are not necessarily down trading. Our consumers are those who are value conscious and have lower disposable incomes,” added the official.

Based on its pilot store in Kalyan, Trent would be using it as a validation and assumption model before its rolls our more stores across the rest of the country. “We would be covering all the tier II and III cities and all the stores would be company owned,” added the official.

Recently, Westside had also announced it expansion across certain cities based on a franchise model. During the year, Trent witnessed a slowdown in its retail business which grew at 13 per cent compared to 31 per cent the previous year.

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