Trent revenue jumps 17% in Q3, FY26 but stock takes a beating as analysts flag growth concerns
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Trent Ltd’s shares fell as much as 8.4% on Tuesday to ₹4,055 on the BSE, hitting their lowest level since April 2024 and rasing close to ₹13,000 crore in market capitalisation.This fall comes even as the Tata Group retailer reported a 17% year-on-year rise in standalone revenue for the December quarter.
The sharp sell-off underscored investor unease over what analysts flagged as a clear slowdown in growth momentum at Trent, which operates Westside and Zudio.
For the third quarter of FY26, Trent posted standalone revenue of ₹5,220 crore, up from ₹4,466 crore a year ago, according to a regulatory filing. Revenue for the nine months ended December climbed 18% year-on-year to ₹14,604 crore. The company continued to expand aggressively, adding 17 Westside stores and 48 Zudio outlets on a net basis during the quarter, taking its total store count to 278 Westside and 854 Zudio stores, including four in the UAE.
Despite the headline growth, the market reaction was unforgiving. Analysts pointed to a visible deceleration at a time when discretionary consumption has been supported by GST-led formalisation and steady urban demand.
“What is worrying investors is that growth has remained muted despite a broader consumption boost from GST collections and formalisation trends,” said Karan Taurani, executive vice president at Elara Capital. “A lot of the focus has shifted towards savings on high-value items like automobiles and white goods, rather than increased spending on fashion and lifestyle.”
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Experts have said that competitive intensity in value and fast fashion has started to bite.
“Acceptance of fast fashion in non-metro markets is another key factor. Growth in these regions is not scaling up as quickly as store additions,” Taurani said, flagging a structural challenge for the sector.
Another pressure point, Taurani noted, is cannibalisation within the fast fashion segment itself. With multiple brands chasing the same consumer and expanding in overlapping catchments, incremental store additions are no longer translating into proportionate revenue gains. “Competitive intensity is playing against Trent, and that is a very big variable right now. There has been clear cannibalisation, with many players, including Trent, expanding together across similar catchments,” he said.
For the last two quarters before Q3, the company has reported revenue growth in the range of 18-20%.
Tuesday’s sell-off also revived memories of Trent’s difficult run last year. In 2025, the stock emerged as the worst performer on the Nifty 50, snapping an 11-year streak of annual gains. Shares had slumped nearly 40% during the year as slowing sales momentum and stretched valuations triggered a sharp reassessment by investors.
The steep fall in Trent’s stock suggests the market is now looking beyond store count and topline growth, and focusing more closely on quality of expansion, same-store performance and market share trends. For a retailer long seen as one of India’s most consistent compounders, the December quarter has raised uncomfortable questions about how much runway remains in an increasingly crowded fashion landscape.