Retail giant Walmart has signalled it plans to open an additional 20 outlets in Japan in 2010 on the back of improved results in the country.
The US-based company presently operates 415 stores in Japan through its Seiyu subsidiary. According to a report in NamNews, all of the company’s formats, which include food stores, delis and general merchandise outlets, would be represented in the new openings. Walmart would look to locate the outlets in existing retail space as opposed to building new stores, the article continued.
Walmart Japan CEO Steve Dacus was upbeat about the company’s prospects in Japan after years of little to no expansion there. “Now we've got a pretty successful business model, and frankly our supermarkets in particular have been really successful, with really good returns, really good performance, so we want to start expanding that as rapidly as we can,” he said.
Earlier in the year British retailer Tesco announced it was withdrawing from Japan after failing to establish sufficient scale there to remain profitable.
