Walmart India, the wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc., today announced the grand opening of its 28th Best Price Modern Wholesale Store in the country in the city of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. A significant milestone, this reiterates Walmart India’s commitment to the State. The new Cash & Carry Store simultaneously got integrated with B2B e-commerce platform, making it the 28th `Best Price’ Store to go online.
Krish Iyer, President & CEO, Walmart India said, “As we continue to grow our network of cash & carry stores in the country with a mission to help small businesses prosper, we would like to thank all our members, partners, associates and stakeholders for their overwhelming support & contribution to the success of our business. We continue to strive to better serve our members and explore more opportunities to create shared value as we open our 28th ‘Best Price’ Store in the country.
Andhra Pradesh is an important state for us and we have invested in growing our footprint here. This is our fifth store in the state with four other stores located at Rajamahendravaram, Guntur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. The state is an important sourcing destination for us as we source a variety of fruits and vegetables directly from farmers, agriculture commodity products from local suppliers and food and non-food items for several private brands.
As we continue to grow our B2B business, we are happy to create thousands of local jobs for youth in the State, boost the regional MSME ecosystem by developing and sourcing regional products, strengthen the agricultural supply chain by sourcing directly from farmers, serve kiranas and contribute to the economy at large. We have been receiving overwhelming response from our members to our exciting range of product assortment, quality and price. Over the years, we have also been able to introduce and integrate member-centric solutions for a seamless shopping experience. We are looking forward to serving many more members, especially kiranas and small businesses and help them save money so they can pass on their savings to their customers.
I am also pleased to share we recently announced the Supplier Development program in India that would train 50,000 MSMEs in India.”
The store will cater to the business needs of underserved small businesses such as kiranas / resellers, offices & institutions (O&I) and hotels, restaurants and caterers (HORECA) of the region. It will enable Walmart India to offer unique value propositions of a wide range of quality merchandise & local assortment at ‘Every Day Low Prices’, unique shopping options, 24-hour door-step delivery and convenient payment solutions to members in Kurnool and adjoining areas.
Spread over 50,000 sq. ft., the store will significantly contribute to the local and state economy by creating an estimated 2,000 direct and indirect jobs. The store will also boost the smallholder farmers and regional supplier eco-system as it will directly source from farmers and locally relevant food, non-food products from local suppliers to fulfill the needs of its members. Besides, the new store has been integrated with sustainable solutions such as renewable energy, LED lights, water recycling through Sewage Treatment Plant and ground water recharging through collection of storm water and waste management.
Walmart India has been supporting farmers through its sourcing program and providing technical assistance and training programs to increase their productivity, become market savvy and thereby increase income. Beyond business, Walmart Foundation has given grants to NGO partners, International Development Enterprises-India (IDEI), ICRISAT and TANAGER to increase sustainable market access for smallholder farmers by building the capacity of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) to scale & sustain and thereby increase rural income. The three projects cover over 35,000 farmers, 25% of whom are women farmers.
