New Delhi : A day after announcing $16 billion investment in India’s largest online retailer Flipkart, Walmart on Thursday said it will continue to grow its wholesale cash-and-carry business, adding 50 new stores in the next four-five years.
“We currently have 21 stores and plan to open 50 stores in 4 to 5 years. Plans are on track,” Walmart India President and CEO Krish Iyer said at a select media roundtable called to explain the Flipkart deal.
Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said Flipkart group, in which the US retailer is acquiring a 77 per cent stake, would continue to operate as a separate board-managed company with co-founder Binny Bansal as the CEO. After the deal, Bansal will be the chairman of Flipkart board.
“As we speak, we have a pipeline of 20 stores and we expect to open 5 stores in the current year and then pick up pace and eventually start opening 12-15 stores a year,” Iyer said. For the cash-and-carry business, Walmart currently operates in 9 states and 19 cities and the future expansion is focused on more or less the same geographies.