Amidst the ongoing opposition to its entry into India, Wal-Mart may go beyond its cash-and-carry wholesale joint venture with Bharti.
NEW DELHI: Amidst the ongoing opposition to its entry into India, Wal-Mart may go beyond its cash-and-carry wholesale joint venture with Bharti. It now emerges that Wal-Mart could well be setting up a separate entity altogether for offering what is known as “retail consultancy” in this country.
The US giant has already made it clear that whenever the current foreign direct investment (FDI) ban is lifted, it would be keen to enter front-end retailing in India as well.
The second venture (consultancy) is expected to offer Bharti the expertise on front-end retail business. Retail experts point out that Wal-Mart’s expertise as a retailer offering lower prices on a daily basis would be very useful to Bharti, once it begins front-end retail operations and the consultancy could also help Bharti ultimately create Wal-Mart look-alike stores, right in your neighbourhood.
Recently, Raj Jain, president, emerging markets, Wal-Mart International, had hinted that the technical alliance with Bharti would be “separate” from the cash-and-carry JV.
“We plan to offer management services, training and our best practices through this alliance,” Jain had said. He clarified that such a consultancy would be free to offer its services not just to Bharti but to other retailers in India as well.
However, a Wal-Mart spokesperson on Friday did not confirm whether the retail consultancy business was being contemplated as a separate entity, terming the query “speculative”.
A consultancy may be seen by sections opposed to Wal-Mart’s entry into India - Left parties, NGOs etc - as a tool to have a toehold in the front-end retail business of Bharti. Already, there are apprehensions within certain political circles over the possibility of Bharti using the Wal-Mart name in the front-end stores.
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