Walmart Drops $500M To Build 47 New Stores In India

Walmart India revealed that it is investing about $500 million to open 47 new stores by 2022. According to CNBC-TV18, the new stores would take the total number of Walmart locations in India to 70. The report said, “Krish Iyer, president and CEO of Walmart India, said that of the 23 B2B Cash and Carry stores, 19 have achieve break even with over 1 million members.”

In addition, Walmart opened its 23rd store in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday (Oct. 31), and is already making plans for a second store in the city.

“A typical store needs anywhere between $9 [million] to $10 million in terms of investment. We are planning to take the total number of stores to 70 by 2022. That is the plan and we will also have eCommerce space in all the stores. So you can do the math. Yes, it needs $500 million,” Iyer said.

He added, “This is now the fourth store in Andhra Pradesh [AP]. This is the first store that we have opened in AP after Walmart India became a 100 percent subsidiary. We have a plan to open another store in Visakhapatnam. We are looking for a site. We hope to sign the property in the next three to four months. It takes about three hours to open a store after we sign a property.”

This is Walmart’s latest move to expand its presence in India. In August, the country’s anti-trust regulator approved Walmart’s $16 billion acquisition of online marketplace Flipkart. In May, the company announced it was acquiring about 77 percent of Flipkart in the biggest deal for India’s eCommerce sector.

“India is one of the most attractive retail markets in the world, given its size and growth rate, and our investment is an opportunity to partner with the company that is leading the transformation of eCommerce in the market,” said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in a statement at the time.