Wal-Mart research unit in Bangalore

Wal-Mart research unit in Bangalore
The Telegraph

Mumbai, Aug. 11: Global retail chain Wal-Mart, whose entry into India has been shrouded in speculation over its every move, is all set to open its research office in Bangalore.

Wal-Mart already has a sourcing office in Bangalore called WMGS Services Ltd with more than 120 associates.

The company has also announced expansion of its satellite sourcing offices in Mumbai and New Delhi recently. Bangalore serves as a hub for sourcing merchandise from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

“We only recently received approval for the (research) office and are now in the process of setting up an office and selecting a team. It will be a small team — we don’t have an estimate on the number of associates, but it will be very small,” said a Wal-Mart spokesperson in an e-mailed reply to The Telegraph.

The Bangalore office will be separate from WMGS. “We plan to have a small team of associates led by Lance Rettig based in this office to conduct market research. We do not have further details to disclose and we are still in the process of establishing this office and team,” said the spokesperson.

Regarding additional offices in India, the company said, “There are no plans at this time.”

In the beginning of 2006, Wal-Mart moved one of its senior executives, Lance Rettig, from its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas to head market research and business development plans related to its retail plans in the country. Rettig will be in charge of the research team in India.

The company has, however, not yet appointed a replacement for S. Ramesh, general manager (India and Sri Lanka) of global procurement, who left the organisation after a long stint.

Wal-Mart’s office in Bangalore serves as the company’s global procurement (GP) hub to source merchandise from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. There are about 80 employees in the Bangalore office.

In 2005, Wal-Mart purchased approximately $1.5 billion in goods from factories and third party suppliers in India for its retail stores worldwide.

About a third of this amount was purchased directly by Wal-Mart’s Global Procurement office in Bangalore. Major categories sourced from India include home textiles, apparel, fine jewellery and house wares. It has increased from the $1.2 billion the company purchased from India in 2004.

Although Wal-Mart does not source food products at this point, it has carried out test shipment of black pepper from the country. The company is also working on direct sourcing of spices, basmati rice, tea and shrimps.