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Wal-Mart to step up rollout in India, says India chief | Raj Jain, chief of Indian operations for Arkansas-based Wal-Mart
has said the company will accelerate its rollout of wholesale stores in India over two to three years, adding that the firm at present expects to open 10-12 wholesale centres. "We will quicken the pace of expansion because when we announced
our joint venture two and half years ago we talked about opening 10 to 12 cash
and carry within five years time, we can now do that in probably two to three
years," said Jain. "So, we are signing properties and we will be accelerating
our store growth and should be able to do 10 to 12 in less than three years,"
he added. Wal-Mart at present runs wholesale operations in India in an equal partnership
with Bharti Enterprises. The chief of Indian operations described India as one
of the most important markets because its potential for retailers is massive.
"India will continue to be among the top two to three locations, which all retailers
throughout the world will be wanting to enter in. Both domestic and as well as
international retailers. It's a very large emerging country, we all know about
it, but also the fact that it is one of the most underdeveloped countries as far
as supply chain and retail is concerned," said Jain. "So, hence the opportunity
is huge. Which also means that there is a lot of investment of time and money
and technology, which is to go in, that means the opportunity is big but the challenge
is equally daunting," he added. The Central government has not yet liberalized
its rules for foreign retailers in India. Jain spoke about the restricted access
for the delay and challenges in the process of expansion plans of the retail giant
in the country. "The few bottle neck for this industry is that there is legislation,
which I think does not allow foreign retailers to make any investments in India.
The government is thinking about," said Jain. "Secondly, I think there are issues
of real estate and infrastructure, which continue to be a big challenge for this
industry. I think people availability is also a big issue. Although we have a
lot of unemployed youth, but they are not very well trained," he added. |
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