Massmart Holdings Ltd. (MSM), South Africa’s biggest food and general goods wholesaler, said its profitability is under pressure because of the costs of expansion and selling control to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) Net income rose 21 percent from a year earlier to 893 million rand ($115 million) in the fiscal first half ended Dec. 25, [...]

Retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB (WALMEX.MX, WMMVY) said Tuesday it plans to invest around 19.7 billion pesos ($1.54 billion) in its operations this year. Chief Executive Scot Rank said the company will open between 410 and 436 new stores to increase its floor space by 12% in Mexico, its main market, while growing its floor [...]

U.K. supermarket chain Asda has launched a new report called ‘Mumdex ‘ which surveyed 4,000 mums about their feelings on their finances, communities and the outlook for the future of their family. And while — statistically — it is far from being as robust as government data, some findings make for difficult reading. According to [...]

Asda has signalled an end to the multi-buy offers that had become a staple of supermarket shopping, such as three products for the price of two, as it believes many Britons are too poor to buy in bulk. Britain’s second biggest supermarket chain by market share – reiterating that it was a “clear winner” in [...]

Andy Clarke, the chief executive of Asda, has become the latest grocery boss to signal the days of building huge out-of-town hypermarkets packed with non-food could be drawing to a close. He made his comments yesterday as the Walmart-owned grocer posted a slowdown in its underlying sales growth over the Christmas quarter. Mr Clarke said [...]

Asda, the British arm of U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc, posted a slowdown in sales growth in its fiscal fourth quarter as shoppers cut back due to rising prices, muted wages growth and an uncertain economic outlook. Chief Executive Andy Clarke said he was instinctively optimistic about prospects in 2012 but said it was too [...]

Bharti Walmart (BW), the 50-50 joint venture (JV) between Bharti Enterprises and US retailer Walmart, is keen to train 40,000 students by 2016 for retail jobs. “This will tackle scarcity of skilled manpower in the retail space,” said Raj Jain, managing director and chief executive of Bharti Walmart and president of Walmart India. The 17-store [...]

Speculation that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) may acquire a Russian hypermarket chain is a “hoax,” said Lev Khasis, a senior vice president and chief leverage officer at the U.S. retailer. “Wal-Mart doesn’t have any short-term plans to enter the Russian market,” Khasis said today by phone, responding to a report yesterday in Delovoy Peterburg newspaper [...]

Whether Wal-Mart ultimately succeeds in buying a controlling share of a major South African chain could affect whether other Americans come to do business on the continent, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official said Thursday. An appeals board for South Africa’s Competition Tribunal is currently considering challenges made by agencies and unions who question the [...]