The 'West' side in Retail

In this last issue of ‘How good a bet’, aakash hindocha presents trent, a counter in the retail front as Dalal times continues to believe that retail is set to play a big role in the upcoming bull market.

During our childhood days we all have heard a story, wherein a monkey eats the cake when two cats are fighting for one. A similar kind of scenario is being witnessed amongst e-commerce players trying to gain market share in the online fashion and clothing market. We agree that gaining of market share is necessary to grow and expand but at what cost and till what extent could these companies be in business. Certainly not at the cost of burning out as much as ₹5 crore per day into losses. India’s front running e-commerce companies have recently posted losses exceeding more than two times of their total revenue owing to huge advertisement expenses, in competition to the existing retail players.

But who is at the receiving end, the end users get to enjoy discounts in this rivalry and surprisingly our very own existing retail players. Companies which are in this business since years and decades are eventually getting benefited due to an increased awareness about latest trends in the industry by these online biggies. In this intensive fight for market share between online players amongst themselves, retail players have quite easily managed to eat the cake. We expect the same to continue in the time to come.

One such company on our radar is from a very reliable management and parent company, the Tata Group. Established nearly two decades ago, this firm under operates Westside, one of the fastest growing large format retail chains in the country; Star Bazaar, a hypermart format chain-store and Landmark which is a family entertainment format store. The company we are presenting in this issue of ‘How good a bet’ is Trent.