Wal-Mart International
Wal-Mart has entered international markets largely through acquisitions, joint ventures, or purchases of shares of existing retailers, particularly well established companies. Internationally, Wal-Mart has a large commitment to environmental sustainability through products, partnerships, and initiatives. Presently, international growth looks promising. In the past year, Wal-Mart’s international selling space grew 18 percent while U.S. space was up 4.6 percent. International sales grew 17.5 percent while U.S. sales rose 5.8 percent in the stores division and 6.7 percent at Sam’s Club, the wholesale, members-only division. Wal-Mart's stores in Mexico saw same-store sales growth of 7.1% in the fourth quarter, and its stores in China saw growth in the "high single-digits." In 2006, Wal-Mart shut down its operations in South Korea and Germany after trying hard to lure customers in both countries for almost eight years. It sold its money-losing operations in those countries for a pretax loss of more than $1 billion. From 1998, Wal-Mart’s international operations have jumped from 6.4 percent of total sales to 24 percent.
• Argentina
-1995-2007, large acquisition of 3 retail stores
-Over 100 suppliers gained to Walmart stores
• Brazil
-1995, opened two supercenters and 3 Sam’s club
-2004-05 acquired 258 combined retail stores
• Canada
-1994, acquired 122 stores of local retailer chain Woolco
• Central America
-2005, Walmart acquired more than 33% interest in Central American Retail Holding, then increased it to 51% in 2006. Now largest retailer w/ stores in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica
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