Trent is now focusing more on smaller towns: CEO

Mumbai: As India's discretionary demand shows signs of recovery following recent GST-led consumption shifts, Trent CEO P Venkatesalu said the company is recalibrating its growth strategy toward smaller towns, pointing to smaller towns as a key driver of its next phase of growth.

"A substantial portion now, maybe about two-thirds of the stores we are increasingly opening, are in new towns, new cities, new micro-markets within the periphery of cities," he said.

The company is increasingly focusing on densification in tier 3 and tier 4 towns despite income and spending maturity in these micro markets still trailing larger cities.


The Tata group-owned retailer added more than 100 stores in the nine months to December this fiscal year, taking its total network to over 1100 outlets.

The company, which runs Zudio and Westside, is betting that fashion adoption in smaller towns will accelerate as exposure to organised retail deepens.

"We see that the young customer in those (smaller towns) markets is super clued on to what trends are playing out. Having said that, I do think she will evolve more as she gets to experience more of these brands in her own micro markets," Venkatesalu said.

The strategy mirrors the densification playbook Trent used in metros about five years ago.

"But that's the same approach that we took to metros five years ago in terms of densification, opening far more presence in individual micro markets. So, we're doing the same thing broadly speaking in (tier) three, four markets now," he said, adding that the company is betting significantly that this market will be an attractive proposition within the next three years.

Against this backdrop, Trent's expansion strategy remains internally driven.