In April last year, Walmart had said that it plans to expand its wholesale business, which supplies the local kirana stores with goods, and double the number of wholesale outlets in the next four years. Those plans have now been pulled out, as per the report, although the company said in response to the local daily that that claim was “baseless and false”.
In a statement to ET, the company said it remains committed to growing in India. The company said: “We are always looking for ways to operate more effectively to serve our members. This requires us to review our corporate structure to ensure that we are organised in the right way to best meet the needs of our members.Impacted associates have been offered enhanced severance benefits and outplacement services to support their transition.”
Along with halting plans of new-store expansion in India, the company is also planning to shut its Mumbai fulfillment centre, which is its largest warehouse here in India. The report claims that the company sees no future in its physical operations in the country.
It seems likely that the company could see the physical business in India or merge it with e-commerce platform Flipkart, which it bought in 2018 for a whopping $16 billion.
The report from ET, citing unnamed sources, claim that more people will have to leave the company in this year as the current layoffs is said to be the first phase and the next phase could happen in April.
Walmart India’s Best Price stores had accumulated losses of ₹2,180.8 crore (~$311 million) until March 2019. In the last fiscal year, the company reported sales of ₹4,095 crore and a net loss of ₹171.6 crore.
We have written to Walmart regarding the same and will update the story upon receiving a response.
