Walmart has plans to invest 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in China over the next 10 years to upgrade logistics.
“Walmart continues to increase its long-term investment in the logistics supply chain in China to drive omnichannel business development, in order to better meet Chinese customers’ fresh goods and convenient services,” said Ryan McDaniel, senior vice president of supply chain for Walmart China, in a statement. “Demand, we continue to improve the capacity of the supply chain, in the next 10 to 20 years.”
The company also will set up or renovate more than 10 logistics centers in the country. Part of the investment will be to update and expand Walmart’s cold supply chain across parts of China. Investment also will support ongoing work in food safety and quality. Walmart has set up quality inspection and inspection personnel at the distribution center to conduct quality and compliance inspection on product quality. At the same time, quality testing laboratories have been set up in the fresh-keeping distribution center to conduct rapid inspections on food legal compliance, agricultural pesticide residues, sensory quality and other issues, and the test results data are shared to all stores nationwide.
Walmart invested 700 million yuan ($102 million) to build a distribution center for perishables in the south of China. It is the largest single investment in China by Walmart since it entered the country 23 years ago.
As of January 2019, the company had 443 stores in China. Walmart operates a number of formats in China, including hypermarkets, Sam’s Club and Walmart supermarkets, with 400 retail units covering more than 180 cities nationwide.
Walmart has partnered with Chinese tech firm, JD.com, and also has invested more than $300 million in a Chinese delivery firm Dada-JD Daojia. And Walmart initially launched a “smart retail” program in China in partnership with Tencent in June 2018, focusing on technologies such as precision marketing and payment services.
As Walmart continues its expansion, French competitor Carrefour has announced plans to sell 80 percent of its operations in China to Suning, a specialty electronics retailer in China.
