Wal-Mart is in no Hurry to up The Ante in India. The Retailer is Expanding and Strengthening its Wholesale Business, Hoping to Leverage those Strengths in The Future when Multi-Brand retail opens up.
These are interesting times for organised retail in India. Even more so for Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer and the largest listed company by revenue (roughly $422 billion in sales last year). The Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart knows that India - which it entered in 2007 through a 50:50 joint venture with Bharti Enterprises - is critical to its ambition to further grow its lucrative global business. Already 26% of the company’s revenue comes from outside the US. Wal-Mart’s international business clocked more than $100 billion in revenue last year, expanding by more than 80% in the last five years.
Indubitably, India is a big pond for big fish Wal-Mart. But there’s a big catch. Wal-Mart’s strategy hasn’t really worked well outside the North and South American markets of Mexico, Brazil and Canada. In most major Asian and European markets like Germany, South Korea, Japan and China, Wal-Mart hasn’t exactly lived up to its formidable reputation as the world’s mightiest and meanest retailer. After entering Germany in 1997 through acquisitions, it exited the market in a jiffy in 2006 (less than a decade), owing to intense competition from the likes of Metro AG. Clearly, its brassy American ways failed to find favour with the Germans. A more or less similar set of circumstances forced it to close the doors on South Korea in 2006 (again, in less than a decade). In Japan, too, Wal-Mart has had a spotty performance so far, failing to live up to any lofty expectations. Its ELDP (Every day low price) scheme is not finding favour with the Japanese, who are ready to pay higher prices for quality. The story in China is not so happy either where its profits and sales are reportedly declining, creating survival issues for the company.
These developments have certainly dented Wal-Mart’s confidence, forcing a change in its strategy. The company is more cautious now about entering new markets. It has learnt its hard lessons. The aggressiveness - entering new markets by buying out local competition (like in Germany and South Korea) - is now tempered with a new-found mellowness and it now sees virtue in the wait-and-watch approach to new markets before taking the plunge.
Wizened to the ways of the new markets and armed with some hard-nosed learnings it entered India through an equal partnership. The logic was unimpeachable. A $1.3 trillion economy, with a 1.2 billion billion population, an expanding middle class (growing in riches and getting brand-conscious by day), India’s $450 billion retail industry is the fastest-growing sector of the economy with sales expected to grow at more than 30% till 2014. Yet, India remains one of the last untapped major retail markets (organised retail is less than 5%). In fact, among the 30 largest emerging markets, India ranks the third-most attractive, according to a recent report by consulting firm AT Kearney. Business Monitor International, a London-based agency in the field of industry research, says retail sales in the third-largest Asian economy might grow to $785 billion by 2015 from $396 billion in 2011 if FDI restrictions are eased soon. Currently, India limits overseas investment in single-brand outlets to 51% and 100% in cash-and-carry stores, which can only sell to other retailers and dealers. But most international retailers are gunning for opening up of the lucrative multi-brand retail, which the Indian government has vetoed so far fearing backlash from mom-and-pop store operators, who constitute 70-80% of the retail Indian market.
These are interesting times for organised retail in India. Even more so for Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer and the largest listed company by revenue (roughly $422 billion in sales last year). The Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart knows that India - which it entered in 2007 through a 50:50 joint venture with Bharti Enterprises - is critical to its ambition to further grow its lucrative global business. Already 26% of the company’s revenue comes from outside the US. Wal-Mart’s international business clocked more than $100 billion in revenue last year, expanding by more than 80% in the last five years.
Indubitably, India is a big pond for big fish Wal-Mart. But there’s a big catch. Wal-Mart’s strategy hasn’t really worked well outside the North and South American markets of Mexico, Brazil and Canada. In most major Asian and European markets like Germany, South Korea, Japan and China, Wal-Mart hasn’t exactly lived up to its formidable reputation as the world’s mightiest and meanest retailer. After entering Germany in 1997 through acquisitions, it exited the market in a jiffy in 2006 (less than a decade), owing to intense competition from the likes of Metro AG. Clearly, its brassy American ways failed to find favour with the Germans. A more or less similar set of circumstances forced it to close the doors on South Korea in 2006 (again, in less than a decade). In Japan, too, Wal-Mart has had a spotty performance so far, failing to live up to any lofty expectations. Its ELDP (Every day low price) scheme is not finding favour with the Japanese, who are ready to pay higher prices for quality. The story in China is not so happy either where its profits and sales are reportedly declining, creating survival issues for the company.
These developments have certainly dented Wal-Mart’s confidence, forcing a change in its strategy. The company is more cautious now about entering new markets. It has learnt its hard lessons. The aggressiveness - entering new markets by buying out local competition (like in Germany and South Korea) - is now tempered with a new-found mellowness and it now sees virtue in the wait-and-watch approach to new markets before taking the plunge.
Wizened to the ways of the new markets and armed with some hard-nosed learnings it entered India through an equal partnership. The logic was unimpeachable. A $1.3 trillion economy, with a 1.2 billion billion population, an expanding middle class (growing in riches and getting brand-conscious by day), India’s $450 billion retail industry is the fastest-growing sector of the economy with sales expected to grow at more than 30% till 2014. Yet, India remains one of the last untapped major retail markets (organised retail is less than 5%). In fact, among the 30 largest emerging markets, India ranks the third-most attractive, according to a recent report by consulting firm AT Kearney. Business Monitor International, a London-based agency in the field of industry research, says retail sales in the third-largest Asian economy might grow to $785 billion by 2015 from $396 billion in 2011 if FDI restrictions are eased soon. Currently, India limits overseas investment in single-brand outlets to 51% and 100% in cash-and-carry stores, which can only sell to other retailers and dealers. But most international retailers are gunning for opening up of the lucrative multi-brand retail, which the Indian government has vetoed so far fearing backlash from mom-and-pop store operators, who constitute 70-80% of the retail Indian market.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)
