After the announcement of the acquisition of the e-commerce company Flipkart, Walmart plans to open new stores in India. The company said today that it will continue to grow its wholesale cash and carry business and will open 50 new stores in the next four to five years. Walmart India President and CEO Krish Aiyar said in a media meeting to give information on the Flipkart deal, "Currently we have 21 stores and our plan is to open 50 stores in 4-5 years."
Iyer said, "As we said we have 20 stores and 5 more stores are expected to open in the current financial year. We try to increase it by 12-15 every year. ' Walmart is doing business in 9 cities in 9 states.
Krish said that we are not going to reduce it. We will continue to focus in these areas but we will initially pay attention to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Walmart Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillan said that Flipkart will continue to operate as a separate company. Its board will also be different. Flipkart will provide Wal-Mart online access.
Wal-Mart is unable to sell the goods directly to customers due to India's retail policy. Under the policy, foreign companies (except the wholesale cash and carry category) can not directly sell the goods to the customers. Companies like Flipkart and Amazon are working in e-commerce, where 100 percent foreign direct investment is allowed.