The COVID 2nd wave related disruptions significantly impacted Trent’s operations during Q1. The company reported that their fashion business (Westside and Zudio) operated for 46% of
the trading days, up from 26% in the corresponding previous period. However, by the close of the quarter, they were operational for over 80% of the trading days. The latter part of first quarter saw the pandemic related restrictions ease considerably aiding sentiment and improving consumer traction.
In this backdrop, revenue from operations recovered to Rs. 327 crs registering a 240% growth over the corresponding previous quarter. This coupled with various cost mitigation measures,
including with respect to property related payouts and operating expenditures, led to significantly lower loss from operations1 of Rs. 89 crs (Rs. 171 cr loss in Q1 FY21).
With customers continuing to increasingly leverage the convenience of the digital platforms
with the online channel registering close to 200% growth in Q1 over corresponding quarter. Also, Trent continues to register over 5% of Westside revenues through online channels.
Speaking on the performance, Mr. Noel N Tata, Chairman, Trent Limited said, “The second wave and the aftermath disrupted our operations across our concepts in the recent months. Nevertheless, we have been pleasantly encouraged by the rapid recovery in customer offtake starting from the middle of June as the business reopened in many markets. Our fashion business has, in particular, recovered sharply and is now back to operating profitability. We continue to focus on our expansion program and I am happy to report that we are seeing good progress on building a strong pipeline, even as the constraints for actual opening to customers remains a challenge in the near term in the case of mall locations/ select markets”.
