Rising rivalry slashes $20 billion value in Indian fashion chain

Trent Ltd., once a market darling that topped India’s stock benchmark NSE Nifty 50 Index in 2024, is stuck in a deepening rout as slowing sales and fierce competition worry investors. 

Shares of the Tata Group company sank nearly 40% in 2025, marking the retailer’s first annual decline in more than a decade, and dropped another 9% on Tuesday following disappointing third-quarter performance update.

The Mumbai-based company, which operates Westside and Zudio fashion outlets, is facing mounting pressure from Reliance Industries Ltd. and Aditya Birla Group, both expanding aggressively into affordable fashion. Urban demand has also remained patchy, eroding investor confidence in a stock once priced at premium valuations.

“It is a challenging time,” Karan Taurani of Elara Securities India Pvt. said. The retailer, which also operates the Star Bazaar grocery chain and Inditex’s Zara and Massimo Dutti stores in India, has to “reinvent their product” to stay ahead of peers, he added.

Trent’s post-pandemic boom was powered by Zudio, which converted aspirational buyers into loyal shoppers with trendy styles priced as low as 399 rupees ($4.4). But as growth cooled, the retailer began diversifying in 2025, launching youth-focused label Burnt Toast, expanding Zudio Beauty, and pushing into categories such as footwear, personal care and innerwear- segments that contributed 21% of sales in the September quarter. Westside has also moved into lab-grown diamonds to attract older, premium buyers.

Returns from these initiatives may take months to materialise, Taurani said.

Still, hopes are high that the moves will revive growth. Abhijeet Kundu, an analyst at Antique Stock Broking, expects accelerated store expansion at Westside in coming quarters, and sees Trent continuing to outperform peers led by its store experience and expansion strategy.

The company added 65 stores across Westside and Zudio in the December quarter, but revenue per square foot- a key investor metric- fell 16% from a year earlier.

That has made Citigroup “cautious” on Trent, according to its Mumbai-based analyst Ashish Kanodia, who cited factors like “increasing competition, the impact of cannibalisation, and new-store expansion” in smaller towns continuing to weigh on the stock.