Click to play videoNew Delhi/Mumbai: After months of speculation, it's now final that Bharti enterprises will introduce the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart to India.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has joined hands with Sunil Mittal's Bharti Enterprises to set up shop in India.
The venture's first outlets will open their doors by the August 15 next year. Bharti Group CMD Sunil Mittal says Wal-Mart will do what it does best.
“There's got to be a major joint venture there – in cash and carry, Wal-Mart does a large proportion of that – that's an area where Tesco is not there. Logistics, the area of procurement, the area of linking up with the producers around the country – the JV will do the entire development of these areas,” said Mittal.
Bharti Enterprises will own and run front-end operations. Mittal says the investment will run into billions of dollars. Now Bharti is looking for land to get its retail operations running.
“We will do buying, rentals, leasing. We're already in talks with the major real estate developers of the country. So a lot of work has already been done and should be ready early part of January,” said Mittal.
The biggest challenge for the $285 billion Wal-Mart has been to localise operations outside America.
This May, Wal-Mart quit Korea and, two months later, pulled out of Germany.
Now that it's in India, Wal-Mart is banking on Bharti. It hopes its partnership with Indian consumers will be a lasting one.
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