Gurgaon: Loss-hit Walmart India, the world's largest retailer, is in the midst of sacking its senior executive based in its headquarters in Gurgaon, as reported by Economic Times.
Walmart has announced laying-off of 50 senior executives, including Vice-Presidents across verticals on Friday. In addition to the lay-offs, it is also planning to shut the Mumbai warehouse, which is the company's largest warehouse. The announcements were made at a town hall meeting on Friday, according to a report by Economic Times.
The lay-offs come two years after Walmart bought the e-commerce retailer Flipkart in 2018 for $16 billion as it planned to compete with it rival Amazon in the online retail market.
Econmic Times quoted Walmart India spokesperson, “We are always looking for ways to operate more effectively to serve our members. This requires us to review our corporate structure to ensure that we are organised in the right way to best meet the needs of our members.”
The spokesperson also said that the laid-off executives have been offered a severance pay.
As reported by Economic Times, this round of lay-offs is the first phase and more people are expected to be sacked by April.
Walmart, however, confirmed that it had no plans of exiting the wholesale segment and said that it is committed to grow its cash-and-carry business in India. Moreover, it also plans to make investments in technology and cater people's demands with the help of its brick-and-mortar and e-commerce business, sources told Economic Times.
Walmart India-owned Best Price store, which had recently opened it 28th store, had accumulated losses of Rs 2, 180 crore till March 2019. It had reported sales of Rs 4, 095 crore and a net loss of Rs 171 crore in the previous fiscal year.
