Mumbai: Customer demand should rebound strongly, possibly from the Q2 onwards, said Trent Chairman Noel N Tata, though he remained cautiously optimistic on the medium-term outlook.With growth drivers such as favourable demographics, increasing per capita and disposable income, and growing consumption, India is expected to return to a strong growth trajectory, despite uncertainty over near-term outlook, he added.
Trent will continue to focus on building out differentiated brands and accelerating its reach through stores and digital platforms, said Tata in the latest annual report of Trent Ltd – the Tata Group’s retail arm.
While we cannot predict how quickly we will see the back of this crisis, there is a reason to believe that we will see a transition out of this pandemic phase. And when it does abate, customer demand should rebound strongly, possibly starting in the second quarter, he said.
Tata further said he is confident that the business has the expertise and importantly the resilience to weather this crisis.
After the second wave of the pandemic post-March 2021, Trent which operates stores such as Westside, Zudio, Utsa and Landmark were either temporarily shut or were operational, albeit with certain restrictions.
Additionally, the opening of 34 stores (Westside and Zudio) under fitouts were impacted in March and April 2021.
Our expectation is for resumption of economic activity in phases and gradual return of normalcy over the next few months, as we experienced in 2020, Tata added.
The company expects certain of its prospective store locations to face temporary challenges in timely construction/ opening.
While talking about the retail industry, Trent said FY21 was a challenging year for Indian retail with extended and intermittent lockdowns.
Nevertheless, the sector is seen to be poised for strong growth over the medium to long term, it said.
The key drivers for growth include growing urbanisation, participation of women in workforce, rising disposable income, discretionary spending along with increasing aspirations, fashion consciousness and brand awareness.
Trent has reported a consolidated revenue of Rs 2,592.96 crore for FY21, which is 25 per cent down from Rs 3,485.98 crore of FY20.