Trent falls over 9% even as Q2 revenue increases 39% on-year

Trent shares slipped in trade on Thursday (November 7) after the company released its Q2FY25 earnings. At around 2:53 pm, shares of the Tata's retail arm offering popular Westside and Zudio stores traded with a cut of 7.88 per cent at Rs 6,405.4 per share.

The stock slipped up to 9.25 per cent to the day's low price of Rs 6,310 apiece on the BSE.

During the review quarter, the company's standalone profit before tax increased 48 per cent on-year to Rs 555 crore, from Rs 375 crore in the same quarter last year. Revenue from operations including GST also increased 39 per cent on-year, clocking a 37 per cent CAGR growth over Q2FY20 at Rs 4,260 crore. The same in the corresponding quarter of the previous year was Rs 3,062 crore.

Revenue from operations at the retail entity, however, was expected to grow by 56 per cent to Rs 4,512 crore during the review quarter.

In Q2, the company opened as many as 43 stores during the quarter, with its portfolio of fashion stores now at 831.

"We now operate with a significant portfolio of over 800 “large-box” fashion stores. In Q2 we continued to deepen and expand our store footprint across concepts, with presence now across 184 cities. As of 30th September, our store portfolio included 226 Westside, 577 Zudio and 28 stores across other lifestyle concepts. During the quarter, we opened 7 Westside and 34 Zudio stores (including 1 in Dubai) across 27 cities. We also consolidated 9 Westside and 16 Zudio stores," added the company's release.

Overall, the Operating EBIT margin for Q2FY25 was recorded at 10.8 per cent in comparison to 9.8 per cent realised in Q2FY24. Analysts estimated EBITDA margin to increase 1.6 per cent to 17.5 per cent during the review quarter while it was 15.9 per cent in the same quarter last year.

In Q2FY25, the company's  fashion concepts registered double digit LFL growth. Both Westside and Zudio witnessed traction in spite of business seasonality. Furthermore, Westside's loyalty program, WestStyleClub, registered strong growth.

Across all our brands, we remain focused on delivering consistent value to customers in terms of both the fashion and price. In addition, our stores continue to provide an improved brand experience as we continue with our expansion program, added the company's release.

Westside.com together with our proposition on the Tata Neu platform continues to grow profitably. This combined online reach contributes to over 5 per cen of Westside revenues, it added.