Walmart China expands

US retail giant Walmart has added three new stores in the Chinese cities of Zhuzhou, Lengshuijiang and Xiaoyi.

It has also reopened its three remodelled stores in Shenyang in Liaoning, Foshan in Guangdong and Mianyang in Sichuan.

This month, Walmart will open four more new stores in Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong and Guangxi.

Recently, Walmart said it would accelerate its development in China, including adding 110 new stores and distribution centres in China, adding new stores in third- and fourth-tier cities, remodelling 45 existing stores this year and 55 and 65 in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

“The Chinese government is carrying on with the economic blueprint of deepening reform, promoting the consumption economy and prompting urbanisation, which enable Walmart to embrace broad development opportunities to serve the emerging consumption group of people,” said Walmart China president and CEO Greg Foran.

“Our tremendous investment in constructing new stores, remodelling existing stores, consolidating our logistics system, and food safety assurance, is one of the manifestations of our our company’s dedication to sustained investment and stable development in the Chinese market,” he said.

In the fourth quarter of this year, Walmart opened 11 new stores in Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Hebei, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, Yunnan, and Shanxi, over 75 per cent of which are located in third-tier and fourth-tier small-to-medium-sized emerging cities.

While maintaining sustained investment, Walmart is closing some stores that cannot meet expectations.

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