WEDNESDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2026

QHAAT

Today in Indian Retail

Retail

Trent bets on Westside with 100 stores yearly and ₹2,500 crore

Tata retailer shifts capital to mid-premium format after Zudio scale, raising the bar for private-label margins this festive.

, Retail correspondent··4 min read

Empty mid-size apparel floor with neat racks and soft overhead lights before opening
Empty mid-size apparel floor with neat racks and soft overhead lights before opening

Trent Ltd will open as many as 100 Westside stores a year, backed by a board-approved ₹2,500 crore raise, a sharp step-up from the earlier 10-15 annual pace. The plan, detailed around 19 October, targets metros, Tier-I and underserved urban markets including the Northeast while Zudio continues calibrated growth.

Trent is rebalancing after Zudio crossed 1,000 stores and the overall network reached 1,342 by end-September. Q2 standalone revenue rose 23 per cent to ₹5,788 crore. Westside will push larger 20,000 sq ft formats with full private-label fashion, beauty, footwear and home.

Shop-floor yields matter more now. A new Westside till in a Tier-II mall needs higher basket values to justify rent and inventory turns that Zudio achieves under ₹999. Merchants watching private-label sell-through will track early festive weeks for conversion.

Westside’s backend and supply chain are built for this faster pace.

The move squeezes mid-market department stores and copycat value players from Reliance and Aditya Birla already crowding Tier-II/III. It helps landlords with larger formats and suppliers of higher-margin apparel.

Watch the next 18-24 months for the 500-store Westside target and any Q3 filing update on digital share rising toward 10 per cent via Tata Neu.

Filed under Retail·Meera Iyer

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