Walmart opens 24th Indian Cash & Carry store

Walmart India said on March 13 that it has opened its 24th business-to-business (B2B) Cash and Carry store in India. The store, located at Karimnagar in the southern state of Telangana, is integrated with the retail giant’s B2B e-commerce platform. It will mainly cater to small businesses such as resellers, offices and corporates as well as hotels, restaurants and caterers. Spread over 50,000 sq ft, the store will create around 2,000 direct and indirect jobs. The outlet will also boost the small farmer and regional supplier eco-system as it will directly source from farmers and local food, non-food products from local suppliers.

At the launch, Krish Iyer, chief executive, Walmart India, said that the company will continue to invest in the supply chain and supplier development, focusing on the growth of small and medium manufacturers in Telangana while developing local clusters to source directly from farmers. The retailer plans to open at least seven new stores are in the pipeline. Apart from growing consumer base, Telangana has come up as an important sourcing destination from farmers, small and medium agri-commodity suppliers and SMEs for Walmart’s private brands. Apart from 23 B2B wholesale stores under the `Best Price’ brand, Walmart operates two fulfillment centres in India.

Last year, Walmart has announced plans to open as many as 20 stores across India by 2021. Walmart has focused on setting up a strong B2B customer base and plans to add around 50 new stores by 2025. A membership-based cash and carry business, Walmart’s wholesale outlets offer an assortment of about 5,000 items. Besides bringing in foreign investment, driving technology innovation and improving supply chain infrastructure, the wholesale stores have helped create thousands of direct and indirect jobs. The stores follows Walmart’s US$16 billion acquisition of Flipkart, an Indian ecommerce firm, in May 2018.