Noel Tata takes over as Trent Chairman

Tata, 57, was instrumental in getting British retail giant Tesco as a JV partner to invest in Indian retail sector

Noel Naval Tata, brother-in-law of Tata group Chairman Cyrus Mistry, has taken over as the chairman of retail firm Trent, succeeding FK Kavarana who retired from the Tata group companies after attaining the age of 70 this month.

Tata, 57, was vice chairman of the company and was instrumental in getting British retail giant Tesco as a joint venture partner to invest in the Indian retail sector. The JV plans to invest Rs 680 crore in multi-brand retail stores in the country - the first JV after the Indian government opened up the sector for foreign direct investment in September 2012.

Noel Tata, who is the son-in-law of Pallonji Mistry - the largest single shareholder of Tata Sons with 18.5 per cent stake, was earlier widely speculated to take over as the chairman of the Tata group from Ratan Tata.

Noel was the managing director of Trent from 1999, a post he relinquished in 2010 and became vice-chairman. The company's consolidated turnover rose from Rs 8 crore in 1999 to Rs 1,932 crore in 2013.

He is also the non-executive chairman of Tata Investment Corporation and Chairman of Landmark.

Like Tata and Mistry, Noel also prefers to keep a low profile and is rarely seen in public. But industry watchers say Noel is working quietly to build a world class retail company in India.

Noel, who built Trent into a Rs 1,000-crore company and launched a slew of brands in India such as Sisley and Zara, is launching global brands from Tata International, the exports and trading arm of the Tata Group.

Tata had launched the Zara brand in India through a JV with Spain's Inditex group and followed this with another JV with the Inditex group, for Massimo Dutti stores. Tata was also instrumental in signing a franchisee agreement with UK's Tesco to provide back-end support for Trent's Star Bazaar stores.

Trent's venture with Italy's Benetton Group to run Sisley stores in India, however, didn't see much success. After Tata took charge of Tata International, he ventured into footwear retail, under the 'Tashi' brand. In late 2010, Tata International acquired 76 per cent stake each in Bachi Shoes India and Euro Shoe Components. In 2011, the company acquired a 51 per cent stake in Portugal's Move-on shoes.

But Tata International had to scale down its footwear retailing venture, as most of the stores were rendered commercially unviable.