Walmart sourced goods worth over USD 30 billion from India in last two decades

Walmart has sourced goods worth over USD 30 billion from the Indian market in the last two decades for its global operations, a company official said on Tuesday.

Now the Bentonville-headquartered firm has a goal to triple its sourcing of goods from India up to worth USD 10 billion per year by 2027, said Walmart Inc Executive Vice President, Sourcing Andrea Albright.

Walmart is encouraging MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) and entrepreneurs with proper training and believes that there is a tremendous opportunity to continue to contribute to India's growing economy, she said.

The company has been doing business in India for the last 25 years, Albright said. "We have already sourced more than USD 30 billion in products from India," she said speaking at the Walmart Growth Summit here. The company is building an ecosystem and taking a people-led approach to connect its work across the country.

"Investing in high growth markets like India helps us strengthen our relationships with established suppliers, but also developing relationships with new ones to build long-term surety and diversity and global supply," she added.

Under its Walmart Vriddhi initiative, which is designed to support MSMEs in modernising, expanding, and reaching their domestic ambitions, the company has trained 50,000 people so far, Albright added.

"That is an amazing achievement. We have hit this goal early," she said, adding, "Our focus is to recruit and train new suppliers to fulfil our purchase orders around the world.

These orders often lead to the creation of new jobs. It also allows our suppliers to invest back in their local communities." Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and Walmart International President and CEO Kathryn McLay in their joint video address to the forum said India is a country with tremendous potential. It is ready to help the Indian MSMEs, which have a wonderful entrepreneurial spirit, to achieve their goals.

"The ecosystem and infrastructure are part of what is so attractive about doing business in India. That's why in 2020, we announced our goal to source USD 10 billion exports annually from India by 2027," said McMillon, adding, "Other than the US, India is the only market where we have set a sourcing objective. And that is because we see so much opportunity." Kathryn McLay said Walmart is "committed to helping grow India's economy which is on track to hit USD 4 trillion this year". The growth summit will help Walmart in providing global market access to Indian manufacturers.

"Because here you have unique products that are in demand with our customers around the world. Some of the products I use every day are made in India by suppliers that we have long relationships with," she said.

McMillon mentioned about sourcing cruiser bicycles from India by entering into a partnership with Hero Ecotech. Similarly, products from Mrs Bector's Food and towels from Welspun has also become popular.

Walmart's Senior Vice President, Supplier Development and Sourcing, Jason Fremstad said Walmart has now a well-established base of suppliers here. The export opportunity is massive from here and over 100 merchants and sourcing experts from around the world will meet new suppliers here.

"What we are aiming to do this week is to continue finding new suppliers to source in categories -- home, apparels, foods, health and wellness, toys .... This week is focused on expanding those opportunities and finding new suppliers that we can export in an effort to achieve the goal that we have set out for sourcing USD 10 billion by the end of 2027," he said.

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