Walmart to open 20 cash-and-carry stores in India in 3 yrs

Lucknow, July 23

US retail major Walmart will open 20 wholesale cash-and-carry stores in India in the next three years, a top company official said on Monday.

Besides, the company, which opened its second fulfilment centre here, is also in the process of opening more such centres to cater to online business-to-business (B2B) customers to tap the fast growing e-commerce in India.

“We will launch two stores this year and eight stores next year and 10 stores a year after that,” said Walmart India President and CEO Krish Iyer.

Walmart has plans to add 50 stores in next five to seven years, he added.

The company operates 21 cash-and-carry stores under the ‘Best Price’ brand in 9 states across India.

It has signed MoU with the Uttar Pradesh government to have 15 stores in next few years in the state, lyer said.

“We have already finalised three sites and six more are in the pipeline” he added.

Walmart plans to set up its ‘Best Price’ stores at various locations in the state, including Kanpur Muradabad, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Sharanpur, Lucknow, and Ghaziabad.

Walmart India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc today opened its second business-to-business (B2B) fulfilment centre (FC) in Lucknow.

Through the FCs, the company caters to its online B2B customers out-of-stores sales while also taking care of sales via associates who take orders from its members and call centres.

“The FC will contribute to the state and local economies by creating over 1,500 direct and indirect local jobs, developing SME suppliers, and empowering local communities,” Iyer said.

Besides, with this initiative Walmart is taking another step towards building an impactful distribution eco-system by working with partners, he added.

This is the company’s second such centre in India. Walmart had  opened its first FC in November last year in  Mumbai.

Walmart India is now getting nearly half of its business through non-store or out-of-store sales channels, which include B2B e-commerce, associates driven sales and call centres.

The rest half of its business still comes from in-store walk-ins. PTI