Wal-Mart: Managing Globalization in 2007
Brazil, for $720 million, adding 140 new hypermarkets, supermarkets, and wholesale stores in the country.
In addition to the Sonae's stores, as of December 2005, Wal-Mart Brazil operated 22 Wal-Mart Super-centers, 15 Sam's Clubs, and 2Todo Dias and 116 Balaio discount stores. Employing about 28,000 associates, Wal-Mart was the sixth-largest retailer in the country.
CANADA
In 1994, Wal-Mart purchased all 122 Canadian Woolco discount stores. This operation too did not get off to the right start. Indeed, for the first three years (1995-97) Wal-Mart Canada showed major losses. But things started improving subsequently. In 1996, Canada generated an operating profit in the second year of operation. Only three years after Wal-Mart acquired the Woolco Stores, it became Canada's highest-volume discount retailer. It broke even for the first time.
Wal-Mart Canada quickly overtook rivals like Eaton's, Zellers, and the Bay. Wal-Mart's low pricing and its ability to strip costs from the supply chain impressed analysts. Suppliers had to deliver at Wal-Mart distribution centers within 15 to 30 minutes of the given schedule. Otherwise, they faced fines. Wal-Mart used its bargaining power to extract price concessions from suppliers.
In 2002, with total sales estimated at $5.76 billion, a store base of 207 outlets, and additional expansion plans on the horizon, Wal-Mart was Canada's largest retailer. The Canadian subsidiary was its parent chain's No. 3 international unit behind the United Kingdom and Mexico. Wal-Mart Canada had reported eight years of continuous growth of sales and profits.
At the end of 2005, Wal-Mart operated 272 discount department stores and 6 Sam's Clubs and employed more than 60,000 associates across Canada. Each discount store housed more than 70,000 products and a wide range of specialty services.
INDONESIA
Wal-Mart had entered Indonesia, attracted by the potential of the world's fourth most...