Walmart to open 30 cash-and-carry stores in next three years

Lucknow: US Retail major Walmart will open 30 wholesale cash-and-carry stores in the next three years, a top company official on Monday said.

The company, which opened its second fulfilment centre here, is also in the process of opening some more in india to tap its growing business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce business here.

“We would launch two stores this year, 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, Iyer added. Besides, the company has a signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of UP 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,” Iyer added. Walmart will have its Best Price stores at Kanpur Muradabad, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Sharanpur, Lucknow and Ghaziabad. The company presently operates 21 cash-and-carry stores here under the brand name of 'Best Price' in nine states across the country.

Walmart India, the wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc, today opened its second B2B fulfilment centre (FC) in Lucknow. “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. Besides, with this initiative we are taking another definitive step towards building an impactful distribution ecosystem by working with our partners,” Iyer said.

This is the second such centre. 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, while the rest half of its business still comes through in-store walk-ins, where its members visit its stores and purchase.