Wal-Mart looking at Europe for expansion

The world’s largest retailing chain and the biggest corporation according to Forbes, Wal-Mart is looking for expansion in the central and Eastern Europe. The financial times reported this on Monday quoting the chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Lee Scott. This might be bad news for the existing stores in the region including Metro AG and Tesco PLC.

Some of the specific areas, Wal-Mart is looking at are countries like Poland, Hungary and Russia. Scott said in the statement: “We have a portfolio we are working on. It doesn’t matter to us which of these will be first, we want all of them at some point.” The basic aim is to continue their sales growth figure of an impressive 30% in the near future.

They are looking for making acquisitions rather than starting afresh to expand quickly. The international sales formed an impressive 21% of Wal-Mart’s US$285 billion in sales. In terms of growth in sales, the figure was even more impressive at 31%. Wal-Mart would be interesting in expanding the scope of international sales to improve on these figures.

India is another country where Wal-Mart sees a huge potential. Chains like Shopper’s Stop and Big Bazaar are somewhat dominating the region. Entry of Wal-Mart would be a big threat to these local chains. Scott spoke about possibilities in the Indian market: “It has specific rules on foreign direct investment, but at some point India, it is such an exciting country with a growing middle class.”

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