No biz announcements during India visit: Wal-Mart

New Delhi, Feb 22 (UNI) The official entry of Wal-Mart in the Indian retail scene will take some more time as the world's largest retailer has said it will not make any business announcement during the India visit of its Vice Chairman Mike Duke.

A spokesperson for the retail chain major today said the company was in ''preliminary talks'' with partner Bharti and the details of the back-end linkage and cash-and-carry format were still being discussed.

''Our business arrangements with Bharti for wholesale cash-and -carry are still being discussed. This is a routine business visit.

No business announcement regarding our specific plans will be made during this visit,'' the spokesperson said.

A Wal-Mart team lead by Duke, who arrived in Mumbai this morning, is conducting business studies to further explore the wholesale cash-and-carry business in India and is expected to visit key ministers and joint venture partner Bharti Enterprises in New Delhi tomorrow.

The 300-billion-dollar India's retail market is so far dominated by small mom-and-pop shops, and major Western retailers are anxious to move in before Indian companies have a chance to build their own chains.

Seeking to allay fears that its entry to India would wipe out the neighbourhood stores, the spokesperson said, ''A cash-and-carry wholesale operation also has the potential to provide much needed support to small business owners and retailers by selling them quality merchandise at competitive prices.'' ''We look forward to partnering with Bharti to build backward linkages with farmers and suppliers through a robust and efficient supply chain,'' the US-based retailer said.

Sourcing from India for its international operations continues to be a growing focus for Wal-Mart. In 2006, it sourced nearly 600 million dollars in goods directly from suppliers in India for the company's stores around the world. ''We hope to continue growing this area.'' the Wal-Mart spokesperson added.

This visit follows an announcement made by Bharti that its wholly-owned unit Bharti Retail will pump in 2.5 billion dollars for building hypermarkets, supermarkets and other stores by 2015.

India does not allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, but permits 100 per cent FDI in cash-and-carry and 51 per cent in single brand retail.

UNI