Wal-Mart may close more shops in Germany

FRANKFURT: US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores is considering closing more outlets in Germany, a senior executive said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

Wal-Mart has closed three German shops this year and German CEO David Wild told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper he could not rule out further closures. “We have some markets that are going really well and others where we are losing a lot of money,” he said. “We are examining all the unprofitable locations.

If we decide that in the longer term we cannot run some of these stores profitably, we will close them.” Wal-Mart entered Germany in 1997 and employs thousands of workers at 85 stores.

It recorded losses for many years but reported a positive operating cash flow for the first time in ‘04. Mr Wild said there were no plans to pull out from Germany altogether as it was the world’s third-largest retail market.

As a global company, we cannot afford to ignore it,” he said.