Trent to take its retail format in West Asia, Africa

Having crossed ₹100 crore in profit after tax, Tata-owned Trent is planning to take its retail formats to international markets, targeting countries in West Asia and Africa.

“Taking Trent overseas is on our radar. Philip Auld, the Managing Director is working on the opportunities for us…If not this year by next year we should definitely go international. There are however transaction costs, taxes and exchange rates which have to be considered,” said Noel Tata, Chairman, Trent Ltd, while addressing shareholders at Trent’s 63rd AGM.

The overseas foray of Tata Group’s retailing arm is expected to cater to the Indian diaspora living in countries such as Oman and Qatar in West Asia and Nigeria in West Africa.

The company operates its stores currently under three formats — Westside, Star Bazaar and Landmark.

Department store format Westside has always been the mainstay and maximum revenue and profit generator of the company with 83 stores across 53 cities.

It also has 50:50 JV under Trent Hypermarket with global retail giant Tesco with formats such as Star Extra, Star Bazaar, Star Market and Star Daily.

In the domestic market, Trent is now planning to add another 12 stores under Westside and more than 25 Star Bazaar stores across its various formats.

Besides, Trent is also working closely with farmers in Maharashtra and Karnataka, sourcing nearly 70 per cent of its vegetables for its convenience and hypermarkets from them.

“We have made investments in collection centres to collect fresh food from farmers who are immediately paid on delivery. At some stage we may also look at providing inputs for farmers. Almost 70 per cent of our vegetables are sourced from them as we do not go to APMC centres,’’ he added.

Revamping Landmark However, its recently restructured Landmark business is expected to get curtailed to five stores from the 36 stores it had in the past.

“We have taken painful steps in restructuring Landmark and have merged its corporate structure with Westside. There is a move away from books into new categories like sports, toys and stationery. Today, we have only five stores and will see if the new categories have the potential to grow. Only then will we add more stores,’’ added Tata.

Landmark is being positioned as a family entertainment format alongside the Westside stores and has roped in Portugese sportswear brand Sportzone as part of its stores.

E-commerce operations Meanwhile, Trent is also expected to have an online presence through the Tata Group’s consolidated platform.

“We should be able to launch our e-commerce operations by the fourth quarter of this year. There would be a brick & click model connecting our shops to the internet whereby our consumers could click and collect from our stores and even return items to the stores,’’ he added.

COMMENT NOW