Expecting India to be the biggest growth engine globally, Noel Tata has put in place an aggressive expansion plan for Trent including accelerated store expansion programme across Westside, Zudio and Star Markets.
“We plan to continue our accelerated store expansion programme across Westside, Zudio and Star Markets which we began last year prioritising high quality and beautiful properties. Our expansion will be supported with substantial investments in our supply chain, distribution, IT and design capabilities,” Tata, Chairman, Trent Ltd, told BusinessLine.
Tata said the company focussed on future growth drivers of the business during the pandemic. “We did not want Covid to affect the long-term growth prospects of Trent. We continued to aggressively sign properties during these two years the results of which will become increasingly evident. Consequently, our reach has increased significantly, as we have opened 125+ stores across all our formats in FY’22.,” Tata added.
Growth strategy
Trent has been historically pursuing a profitable growth strategy. The company’s profitability saw a substantial rise during the first quarter in line with the strategy. “The increase in profitability we have seen in Q123 has been due to a Covid uninterrupted quarter, an aggressive store expansion programme over the last two years along with wonderful products in the stores. I hope that our focus on our fundamental growth drivers will continue to help us in the remaining quarters as well,” Tata said.
He said despite inflation and macro headwinds globally, the Indian economy continues to remain robust. “Importantly, we expect India to continue to be the biggest growth engine globally at least for the next year or two. Current inflationary pressures are to an extent, a result of the world getting back to normalcy after Covid and should start to subside over the next 18 months. Customers are definitely feeling the pressure of this inflation and we are, therefore, holding our prices as best as we can by driving efficiencies in our supply chain to reduce the impact on our customers,” he said.