Flipkart, PhonePe continue to experience strong growth: Walmart CEO

New Delhi: Flipkart and PhonePe continue to experience "strong growth" in the first quarter of 2021-22 in the Indian market, Walmart Inc. said while declaring its quarterly earnings on Tuesday.

The US-based retailer has raised its full-year earnings forecast after US shoppers armed with government stimulus cheques ventured back into stores, driving demand that is expected to continue through the year as Covid-19 restrictions ease. Operating income rose 32.3% to $6.91 billion in the January-March period, while Walmart reported adjusted earnings of $1.69 per share beating estimates of $1.21 per share. Total revenue rose 2.7% to $138.31 billion.

But Walmart International, which houses the US-based retailer's overseas operations, posted 8.3% decline in revenue to $27.3 billion. This was "negatively affected by government-mandated restrictions in certain markets," Walmart said, but "retained market growth of 5.1%. This was led by strength in Flipkart and Canada, and e-commerce, which contributed 16% of the total net sales of the division".


"In India, for the first quarter, Flipkart and PhonePe continue to experience strong growth," said Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillan during the earnings call.

Flipkart had last month announced that it would acquire 100% of Cleartrip to enhance its digital commerce offerings for customers, McMillan said. This "underscores our commitment to transform the customers experience through digital commerce," he added.

Flipkart has also formed an alliance with Adani Group to strengthen logistics and data centres.

"We need to continue to add new capabilities including such areas as logistics and data storage. The recently announced partnership with Adani Group would help us to do just that," McMillan said.