Wal-Mart to open 40 more stores

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer that has a wholesaling venture with India’s Bharti Group, plans to open 40 more “cash & carry” stores in India. Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt., in which the two companies are equal partners, opened its first Indian wholesale store in Amritsar on May 30, with initial plans to start 10 or 15 more outlets and hire 5,000 people during the next three years. India bars Wal-Mart and other overseas companies from opening retail stores or buying stakes in supermarket chains in the world’s second-most populous country. Local laws, aimed at protecting small shops, allow foreign chains to operate only wholesalers that sell groceries and other goods to businesses such as supermarkets, department stores and restaurants. Chairman S. Robson Walton visited India earlier this month and met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Company sought the easing of foreign investment rules in the local retail industry at the meeting. Wal-Mart’s international business has expanded at an average of 13 per cent annually in the past five years, more than twice as fast as the 5.9 per cent growth in the U.S.