Trent looking at repeating Westside story with Zara

Trent the makers of the brand Westside, one of India’s largest and fastest growing clothing retail chain, are set to increase their pan India presence. In the financial year of 2010-11 they plan to add 12 to 18 new stores. The average store size would be around 20,000 sq.

ft. Trent plans to open these stores in metros like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and in cities like Kanpur, Mangalore and Raipur. They already have four stores in Kolkata and Guwahati and plan to expand in these cities as well.

Westside’s biggest store, which is around 36,000 sq. ft., is in Hyderabad. Their top three stores are in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. Meanwhile, Trent has also got its act together to bring some prominent retail chains into the country, one of these is Zara. In the next three to six months they plan to open Zara stores in Delhi and Mumbai.

It maybe recalled that Trent was formed from the acquisition of Littlewoods, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Littlewoods UK. In 1998 it was acquired by the Tata group. At that time Littlewoods had one operational store in Bangalore. Trent relaunched the business with some modifications under the brand Westside. As it stands today, it’s essentially a private label department store with 90 to 95 per cent of their own in-house private labels. Gaurav Mahajan, COO, Trent opines, “Private label is a culture and we strongly subscribe to that culture. That’s been a strong factor in our profitability. We create brands. One of the most prominent labels at Westside is Westside itself. We sell clothes for men, women and children, home accessories and non-apparel products. In terms of business volume Westside is the largest format for Trent.” As of now Westside has 43 stores and is spread across 22 cities.

Trent also got into the books and music business through the acquisition of Landmark. Then there is a JV with the Tesco group of UK and Westside had the hypermarket business called Star Bazaar. Trent also brought in international brands to India. The first one was a tie-up with the Benetton group to market its three brands in India.

From 2008-09 to 2009-10, the company has seen a growth of 25 to 35 per cent and they anticipate a growth of about 40 per cent in the next two or three years. In the future they are toying with the idea of opening small format stores probably dedicated to women’s wear.