When Walmart left Russia empty-handed in December 2010 – 8 years after it first began exploring the market and 3 years after it had opened a Moscow office – it appeared that the world’s largest retailer had finally met an emerging market it could not crack.
Today the company has already laid the initial groundwork for its return, hiring one of the leading figures in Russian retail to help manage its emerging markets division.
Lev Khasis, former chief executive of X5 Retail Group, Russia’s biggest retailer by sales, has started as a senior vice-president at Walmart, where he will be focusing on the companies’ existing emerging market operations, in countries including Brazil, India and China.
Mr Khasis stressed in an interview that his appointment did not indicate Walmart would immediately rush back into Russia, but said the company would continue to look at the market carefully, waiting for the right time and the right acquisition.
Source: www.freshplaza.com