HYDERABAD: US retail giant Walmart is planning to add 50 retail stores to its existing 21 stores in India over the next three to five years with an outlay of `3,500 crore. Of the 50 new stories being added, 10 will be in Telangana, for which Walmart India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Telangana government on Saturday.
Walmart executives and Telangana government officials signed the MoU in the presence of state Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, President and CEO, Walmart Canada and Asia, Dirk Van den Berghe and President and CEO Walmart India, Krish Iyer.
Talking to reporters, Rajneesh Kumar, senior vice-president and head—corporate affairs, Walmart India, said their focus in South India would be on Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“We want to set up 50 new stores over the next three to five years. Each retail store will have investment of about $10-12 million and has capacity to create 2,000 to 2500 jobs. We entered into an MoU with Telangana to get hassle free approvals and permissions through single window system for setting up new stores. We also want to work closely with governments and farmers in India. Our aim is to procure the agri-produce directly from farmers and develop an ecosystem,” said Kumar.
He added that the company has already started the process of procuring land for setting up 10 new large-format retail stores in Telangana. “We are focusing on not only metro cities but also tier-2 cities for expanding our retail cash and carry stores network.”
Walmart India currently operates 21 cash-and-carry stores in India and its robust expansion plans will take the number to 71. With the retail sector seeing a positive momentum, the Walmart India management is eyeing promising growth prospects in India. It has been working in close coordination with Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and other state governments as part of its expansion plans.
Walmart India is the wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s leading retailer Walmart Stores Inc. Walmart set up its first store in India in 2009 and it sources 90 per cent of its products locally.