Walmart History & Profile

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., branded as Walmart, is an American multinational retail corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's third largest public corporation, according to the Fortune Global 500 list in 2012, thebiggest private employer in the world with over two million employees, and is the largest retailer in the world. Walmart remains a family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family, who own a 48 [5][6] percent stake in Walmart. It is also one of the world's most valuable companies The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States. Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names. its operations in the United Kingdom, South America, and China are highly successful, whereas ventures in Germany and South Korea were unsuccessful.

Early years (19451969)

In 1945 a businessman and former J. C. Penney employee, Sam Walton, purchased a branch of [13] the Ben Franklin Stores from the Butler Brothers. Sam's focus was on selling products at low prices to get higher-volume sales at a lower-profit margin. He portrayed it as a crusade for the consumer. He experienced setbacks, because the lease price and branch purchase were unusually high, but he was able to find lower-cost suppliers than the ones used by other stores.

Operating Divisions
Walmart's operations are organized into three divisions: Walmart Stores U.S., Sam's Club, and Walmart International.

Corporate affairs
Walmart is headquartered in the Wal-Mart Home Office complex in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company's business model is based on selling a wide variety of general merchandise at "always low [9] prices." They refer to their employees as "associates". All Wal-Mart stores in the US and Canada also have designated "greeters" at the store entrance, a practice pioneered by founder Sam Walton and later copied by other retailers. Greeters are trained to help shoppers find what they want and answer their questions.

Finance and governance

For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2011, Wal-Mart reported a net income of $15.4 billion on $422 billion of revenue with a 24.7 percent gross profit margin. The corporation's international [2] operations accounted for $109.2 billion, or 26.1 percent of total sales. It is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000 list, and the largest public corporation when [140] ranked by revenue. Wal-Mart is governed by a fifteen-member Board of Directors, which is elected annually by shareholders. Notable former members of the board include Hillary Clinton

Competition
In North America, Wal-Mart's primary competition includes department stores like Kmart, Target, ShopKo and Meijer, Canada's The Real Canadian Superstore and Giant Tiger, and Mexico'sComercial Mexicana and Soriana. C

Economic impact
Kenneth Stone, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, in a paper published in Farm Foundation in 1997, found that some small towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years of a Wal-Mart store opening.

Employee and labor relations

With close to 2.2 million employees worldwide, Walmart has faced a torrent of lawsuits and issues with regards to its workforce. These issues involvelow wages, poor working conditions, inadequate health care, as well as issues involving the company's strong anti-union policies. Critics point to Walmart's high turnover rate as evidence of an unhappy workforce, although other factors may be involved. Approximately 70% of its employees leave within the first year.

Walmart - India
2010
Bharti Walmart, a joint venture, opened its first store in India.

Bharti Walmart Private Limited is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises, one of India's leading business groups with interests in telecom, agri-business, insurance and retail, andWalmart, the worlds leading retailer, renowned for its efficiency and expertise in logistics, supply chain management and sourcing. The joint venture is establishing wholesale cash-and-carry stores and back-end supply chain management operations in line with Government of India guidelines. Under the agreement, Bharti and Walmart hold 50:50 stakes in Bharti Walmart Private Limited.The first Wholesale Cash-and-carry facility named "Best Price Modern Wholesale" Opened in Amritsar in May 2009 and subsequently in Zirakpur (Near Chandigarh), Jalandhar, Kota, Bhopal, Ludhiana, Raipur, Indore, Vijaywada, Meerut, Agra, Lucknow, Jammu, Guntur, Aurangabad ,Bathinda, Amravati ,Hyderabad and Rajahmundry.

Best Price Modern Wholesale Store Best Price Modern Wholesale stores are a one-stop-shop that offers best prices with unmatched convenience, choice, quality and hygiene. The stores meets day-to-day needs of business members namely restaurant owners, hoteliers, caterers, fruit and vegetable resellers, kiranas, other retail stores, offices and institutions. Around 5,000 items, including food and non-food items, are available at competitive wholesale prices by lowering cost of operations. Over 90% of these items are being sourced locally, which in turn reduces the costs and eventually, the prices.

Generating Local Employment Bharti Walmart is committed to generating employment opportunities for the local youth. Over 11,000 students have been trained at Bharti Walmart Training Centers . These are Indias first special skills training centers launched by Bharti Walmart in Public-Private Partnership with the Government of Punjab in Amritsar; the Government of Delhi in Delhi; and the Government of Karnataka in Bangalore The Training Centers offers 100% scholarship (free of cost training) to all enrolled candidates; aim at creating employment opportunities for the youth. More than 3,500 of these trained students have been placed with various organizations through the training centers. By 2016 we will open 16-18 training centres in a PPP model with state governments across India; train 50,000 students and place at least 15,000 students by 2015.

Leadership Raj Raj is President, Walmart India and Managing Director & CEO, Bharti Walmart Pvt. Ltd. Jain

SWOT Analysis Bharti: Bharti Enterprises is one of India largest Telecom Company. It has grown over the years byacquiring and building partnership. Bharti has managed to build global partnership very well.As Bharti is one of the pioneers of Indian telecom revolution over the period of time it hasgained good knowledge of Indian consumers. However retail is a new business for Bharti andSWOT analysis below illustrate the positives and negative Bharti and Wal-Marts joint venture

Bharti has 152.5 million customers and it is very well known and established brandin India. Bharti can attract its existing customers to Wall-Mart Bharti outlets.2. Bharti is present in large part of India and Bhartis presence would help the jointventure in scaling up the operation quickly.3. Bharti has built a huge network of suppliers, business partner across the length andbreadth of India, this network can be very useful for Wall-Mart Bharti join venture.4. Collective brand power of Wall-Mart and Bharti will be a formidable combination.

Weakness: 1.Bharti is known for building business from start however joint venture with Wall-Mart will require lot of co-ordination and cross cultural issues.2. Bharti does not have experience in retail business like FMCG and related retailproduct. Wall-Marts retail expertise is a huge plus but Bhartis lack of knowledge inretail could be problematic for joint venture.3.

Bharti is a small company as compared to Wall-Mart and this could lead to improper balance of power and may be detrimental to the success of joint venture Opportunities: 1. Bharti and Wall-Mart is a formidable combination and with Bharti expanding in ruralmarket, it will provide a gateway for Wall-Mart to expand in remote towns andvillages of India 2. Both companies will have huge opportunity to learn from each other, as both of them have complimentary skills.3. Opening of cash and carry stores will have the largest opportunity to profit for bothcompanies.4. Cash and carry stores will establish retail outlets and create a supply chain networkin the region.5. By using local producers and stimulating the local economies, it will create jobswithin the community it will help in strengthening Bharti Wal-Mart joint venture. Threats: 1. Wall-Marts poor social image of damaging mom and pop stores in US can be seriousissue in India.2. Established local retail companies like Big Bazar, Spencer, Reliance Fresh can givetough competition to Bharti Wall-Mart venture3. Foreign companies like Metro, Shop Rite are also making huge plans to get intoIndian retail market and this would certainly not make things easier for Wall-Martand Bharti joint venture.4. Protests against opening of retail sector by various political parties and NGOs canseverely impact operation of Bharti Wall-Mart cash and carry stores just like whathappened to Reliance Fresh outlets in Uttar Pradesh