TATA news and archive

Westside to expand retail spread with more new stores

Tata's retail arm Trent which operates Westside will open 30 new Westside stores this fiscal. At present there are 125 Westside stores. The plan is to double the number in three to five years. Around half of the new stores will be set up through the franchisee mode while the others will be company-owned. Westside, set up in 1998, has a range of...

Business

Tata all set to take on rivals with aggressive online foray

The 108 billion dollars (over Rs 6 lakh crores) Tata group, with businesses ranging from salt to software and tea to telecoms is now focusing on the launch of its e-commerce venture. The venture will also see the launch of a digital platform for healthcare services and a renewed focus on Big Data analytics, using its newly launched data...

Apparel

Now Tata Group to make a foray into ecommerce

The e-commerce bug has finally bit one of largest corporates in India. The Tata Group is planning to jump into the e-commercemarket to grab a pie of this prospering business. The conglomerate would launch a marketplace model directly competing with Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal. The new venture would fall under Tata Industries, a fully...

Apparel

Trent launches new firm to open stores in non-FDI states

The only company to have successfully formed a joint venture with UK’s retail major Tesco, Tata run-Trent Hypermarkets, has launched a separate company to open and operate its hypermarket stores in states that don't allow foreign investment in multi-brand retail, such as Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Of the 16 stores under the Star brand, four were in...

Apparel

Competition Commission of India approves Tesco's stake in Trent

Despite the commerce ministry rejecting foreign investment in India’s multi-brand retail, the Competition Commission of India has approved British retail major Tesco's purchase of a 50 percent stake in Tata Group firm Trent Hypermarket. The joint venture partnership between Tesco and Trent is the first foreign direct investment transaction in...

Apparel

Competition Commission of India approves Tesco stake in Trent

Apparel

Trent-Tesco JV to focus on expansion despite BJP’s anti-FDI stand

JV partners, British retailer Tesco and Trent, a Tata group company, are bullish about multi-brand retail business in India. Both companies are going ahead with their aggressive expansion plans in Maharashtra and Karnataka despite the new BJP government at the Centre which has expressed opposition to FDI in multi-brand retail. After the UPA...

Apparel

Xander buys additional stake in Trent

Global investment firm Xander has acquired an additional three per cent stake in Tata group’s public listed retail company Trent for Rs 107.4 crores (18 million dollars) from its own co-founder Siddharth Yog, who has sold his entire individual holding in the company. Xander held 2.2 per cent in Trent as of December 31, 2013 through Dodona...

Apparel

Noel Tata takes over as chairman of Trent

Noel Tata takes over from F K Kavarana who has been Chairman of Trent since 2006. Tata Group company, Trent operates retail chains like Star Bazaar and Westside. Kavarana stepped down from the company’s board of directors on March 30 and Tata takes on his new role immediately, said a statement by Tata Group to BSE. Noel Tata, who built Trent...

Apparel

Tata-Wolverine JV witnesses growth in India market

Tata International and Wolverine World Wide formed a joint venture (JV) last year wherein the latter owns 50 percent stake, to launch Merrell and Caterpillar Footwear brands in India. The company expects over 50 percent growth for both the brands in the next three years. Also on the agenda is expansion of footprint for both through mono brand...

Apparel

Star Bazaar to reduce store sizes

After announcing a joint venture with the world’s third largest retailer Tesco, hypermarket chain Star Bazaar plans to reduce sizes of its stores from 40,000-80,000 square feet to 20,000-30,000 square feet, to keep costs under control and achieve profitability. The first Star Bazaar was launched in 2004 but the company is yet to book profits. In...

Fashion

High street rentals a dampener for brands and retails

With rising high street rentals and delays in mall development in many cities, prominent apparel and fashion accessories brands and retailers are finding it difficult to sustain growth on high streets owing to low footfalls. The profit compared to the rents they have to pay is low. For instance, Globus’ store in Mumbai’s upmarket Bandra area,...