The world’s largest retailer, Walmart hired ex-employee of X5 Retail Group, Russian biggest retailer; on Monday, Catherine Ishevskaya was appointed a vice-president of the company, before that she was in charge of X5 purchasing department. Ms. Ishevskaya and Lev Khasis, former head of X5 who has been working for Walmart for a year, now are responsible for integrating retail business models into developing markets – among them there may be the Russian market as well.
In February 2012, during the interview with TV channel Russia Today, Mr. Khasis said that the possible return of Walmart on the Russian market would be in 2 years. The first attempt of the retailer to conquer the Russian market failed: the Moscow office was closed in February 2011 – Walmart did not purchase local retail networks – hypermarkets “Lenta” and discounters “Kopeika” (the latter was sold to X5 Retail Group in 2011).
Walmart managers went to Moscow on a business trip 3 weeks ago – Lev Khasis with five other Walmart vice-presidents came to Moscow. Walmart talked with “Lenta” managers during the visit to Russia, according to some sources. But so far, “Lenta” does not have enough supermarkets, though it is going to develop and open 46 hypermarkets in Omsk, Novosibirsk, Moscow and other cities.
Source: www.retailer.ru