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Tata Group retailer Trent is reportedly bringing British coffee chain Caffè Nero into its fashion stores, even though another Tata company already operates Starbucks in India. According to The Economic Times, Trent has signed a licensing agreement with Nero to introduce cafés inside Westside and Zudio outlets after talks with Tata Starbucks failed.
To clear up the Tata connection, Westside is the flagship retail brand of Trent Limited, the Tata Group's fashion retailer. Trent also operates Zudio, its affordable fashion chain. Starbucks India, meanwhile, is run by Tata Starbucks, a separate 50:50 joint venture between Tata Consumer Products and America's Starbucks Corporation. All three names sit within the broader Tata universe, but the businesses don't share the same priorities.
According to the report, Starbucks wanted its cafés in prominent positions near the front of Trent's stores and greater control over the locations and formats. Trent reportedly disagreed. In a fashion store, the entrance is particularly valuable real estate.
Think about a Westside outlet. The first displays introduce shoppers to the latest collections and set the tone for the visit. A coffee counter at the entrance might bring in someone who wasn't planning to buy clothes. It could also displace the products Trent would otherwise place in that spot. Whichever brand takes that space needs to make it pay.
Trent's annual report puts a typical Westside store at roughly 20,000–30,000 sq ft, while a Zudio outlet is usually around 10,000–12,000 sq ft. In FY26, its fashion stores in metro and Tier-1 cities generated annualised merchandise sales of ₹15,318 per sq ft. That figure measures sales rather than profit, but it helps explain why Trent would be protective of its floor space.
For a sense of scale, Nero opened a 1,500 sq ft café inside a John Lewis department store in London in 2024. A café of the same size would take up about 6% of a 25,000 sq ft Westside store, or nearly 14% of an 11,000 sq ft Zudio outlet. Those are illustrations, not announced plans for India. The size of Trent's proposed cafés hasn't been disclosed.
Still, there's a commercial reason to make room for coffee. Clothes are an occasional purchase. Coffee can be a much more regular habit. A shopper might come in for a cappuccino, browse a new collection and pick up something on the way out. The café might also make a shopping trip more pleasant for families or groups of friends. None of that guarantees higher clothing sales, but it gives Trent another possible reason for people to visit its physical stores.
There's enough scale for an experiment to be meaningful. In its October business update, Trent said it had 1,342 stores across Westside, Zudio and other lifestyle formats at the end of September 2026. It had also opened its 1,000th Zudio outlet during the quarter. Even a limited rollout could put Nero in front of shoppers who have never tried the British chain.
Nero has handled this kind of partnership before. In Britain, it developed in-store café concepts with supermarket chain Waitrose and, in December 2024, opened a 72-seat café inside John Lewis. Its announcement describes a model in which Waitrose supplies the food and Nero provides specially roasted coffee. That experience could be useful when tailoring a café to a fashion retailer's existing layout.
Starbucks has its own reasons to care about the format. Since entering India in 2012, the chain has sold an experience built around premium coffee, comfortable seating and places to meet or work. That can be an expensive proposition in a market where rents are high and many customers are price-conscious. In November 2025, The Economic Times reported that Tata Consumer was seeking a more affordable model from its joint-venture partner, with smaller outlets and leaner equipment among the changes under discussion.
The financial pressure is real. Tata Starbucks earned ₹1,367 crore in revenue in FY26 but recorded a net loss of ₹98.95 crore, according to Tata Consumer's annual report. The loss had narrowed from around ₹135 crore in FY25, and the business became profitable at the operating level. It was improving, but still had work to do before making an overall profit.
And even with the Tata name in common, Trent isn't obliged to hand Starbucks the most visible part of its stores. Trent and Tata Consumer are separately listed companies, while Starbucks also answers to an international joint-venture partner.
The Nero agreement still leaves plenty unanswered. Neither the planned number of cafés nor their prices, layouts, operating responsibilities and financial terms have been disclosed. It also remains to be seen whether a premium British coffee chain can work equally well inside Westside and Zudio, whose shoppers have different budgets and expectations.
Ultimately, the first cafés will have to prove that they earn their place. A compact takeaway counter and a large sit-down café can bring very different returns from the same floor area. Trent's decision reflects a practical rule of retail: being part of the same corporate family doesn't make shop space free.
