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Wal-Mart Plans Growth in 15 'Opportunity Markets'

Wal-Mart Stores expects to boost its U.S. presence in 15 "opportunity markets," Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. division of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores, said here yesterday at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference.

NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores expects to boost its U.S. presence in 15 "opportunity markets," Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. division of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores, said here yesterday at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference.

"We call them opportunity markets because they are markets where we have a 3.9% share as opposed to our average of 8.9%," he explained. "Those 15 markets represent 34% of total U.S. retail sales, and they are nearly the size of the entire retail market in China and larger than Russia and India [markets] combined."

Some of the chain's ability to grow in those markets will come from the smaller "high efficiency" retail formats Wal-Mart is developing, he pointed out, "that would deliver much high sales per square foot and return on invested capital."

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