Walmart sacks 56 executives in India as part of restructuring
Walmart in India
WalmartInc, the world's largest retailer, has fired 56of itsIndiaexecutivesas part of itsrestructuringin the country, threesourceswith direct knowledge told Reuters.
The move underscores the strugglesWalmarthas faced in expanding its wholesale business inIndia.
Reuters reported the firings earlier on Monday, citing three people with direct knowledge of the matter, adding the move had mostly affected executives inWalmart's real estate division, which takes care of store expansion, as the wholesale business model did not bring in expected growth.
Eight of the 56 executives fired were in "senior management" roles and the rest from middle or lower management, Krish Iyer, President and CEO ofWalmartIndia said in a statement.
"We are also looking for ways to operate more efficiently, which requires us to review our corporate structure to ensure that we are organised in the right way," Iyer said, adding the fired executives had been offered enhanced severance benefits.
The Bentonville, Arkansasbased company currently operates 28 wholesale stores where it sells goods to small shopkeepers, and not to retail consumers.
The firings mostly affectedexecutivesin the company's real estate division because the growth in the wholesale model has not been that robust, two of thesourcessaid.
"It's happening because the focus is shifting to e-commerce rather than physical (stores)," said one source, who declined to be identified as the decision is not public.
Walmarthas placed bold bets onIndia's e-commerce sector.
In 2018, it paid $16 billion to acquire a majority stake inIndia's online marketplace Flipkart, in its biggest global acquisition.
The second source added that whileWalmartcould slow down the pace of opening new wholesale stores, the focus will increasingly be on boosting sales through business-to-business and retail e-commerce.
Some of theexecutiveswere sacked last week and more could be let go on Monday, twosourcessaid.
Walmarthasaround600 staff in itsIndiahead office out of a total ofaround5,300 nationally, one of thesourcessaid.