Mumbai, April 29
Tata Group’s retail arm Trent Limited on Tuesday reported a sharp 47 per cent drop in its net profit for the March quarter (Q4 FY25), which fell to Rs 350 crore from Rs 654 crore in the same period last fiscal.
The steep fall was largely due to a one-off gain of Rs 543 crore in the base quarter, which had inflated last year’s numbers, the company said in its stock exchange filing.
Chairman Noel Tata acknowledged the quarter’s weakness, noting that full-year figures offered a better picture of the company’s performance, especially given the seasonal nature of retail and real estate-related challenges.
"In FY25, we built on the agenda of strongly growing our reach and becoming more accessible to our customers. Given the seasonality of the business, nature of the real estate market and our approach to inventory management, the full year performance is more representative with respect to revenues, operating profitability and network expansion vis-a-vis any individual quarter," he said.
While revenue from operations rose 29 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 4,203 crore, this quarter marked the slowest growth since FY21.
The company’s total income for the quarter was Rs 4,291 crore, up 27.2 per cent YoY, but down nearly 9 per cent sequentially from the December quarter, reflecting fading momentum.
Trent, which owns Westside, Zudio and Star, joins other global and Indian retailers like H&M, Uniqlo and Lifestyle in facing sluggish sales growth amid weak consumer demand.
The company’s like-for-like growth in the fashion segment was limited to mid-single digits in Q4, far from the robust expansion seen in recent years.
Analysts say rising inflation and slow income growth, particularly in metro and Tier-1 cities, have dampened discretionary spending.
Despite the challenges, the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margins improved slightly to 9.3 per cent from 8.3 per cent last year.
Trent ended FY25 with a 39 per cent jump in annual income to Rs 16,997.5 crore, aided by aggressive expansion into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.