In terms of retail markets India is a mother lode with a population of 1.1 billion potential shoppers and the Bentonvile behemoth wants them all to shop at its big boxes. But that might not happen according to Forbes magazine:

Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s two biggest telecom operators, said on Tuesday that it was in the final stages of choosing a retail partner for its farm unit, FieldFresh Foods. America’s Wal-Mart and France’s Carrefour have been in talks with the company, but Bharti chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal revealed at a London trade conference on Tuesday that Britain’s Tesco was on the short list.

Entering India is not simply a matter of buying some land and throwing up a big box.

To date the Indian government has only allowed single-brand retailers like Britain’s Marks & Spencer to enter its market. Until the barriers for foreign retailers are relaxed, overseas merchants are reduced to busying themselves in India’s wholesale sector, as does Germany’s Metro or forming joint ventures with the likes of FieldFresh.

Hmmm… how about Wal-Marting Across India?

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

Share on Facebook

This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 0753 by Jeff Hess and is filed under India, Walmart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.