Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon in an interview with TOI stated that the company is no longer focused on the brick-and-mortar retail business in India.

McMillon explained “That’s not something we are pursuing. We’ve learned that it’s very challenging. Instead we’re thrilled to have invested in Flipkart.”

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on his second visit to India in less than 18 months on Tuesday reiterated the companys commitment to sourcing USD 10 billion worth of goods from the country saying the retail giant is actively working with local suppliers to meet this target by 2027.

McMillon who has visited India multiple times since becoming the CEO of the Bentonville-headquartered retail giant said Walmart has increased sourcing from the country over the years and it is excited with the progress made.

I have been coming to India for a long time now many years and I have made many trips and what goes through my mind is that there is a story developing that is a bit like a movie McMillon said.

Over the years the growth story of India is unfolding and its really broadening and becoming much more interesting he said.

In December 2020 Walmart had announced a goal to source USD 10-billion products from India by 2027 aiming to boost exports in apparel food toys and other categories.

At the beginning we were sourcing products here with limited categories but we were excited to get started... look whats happened in our sourcing business.

Its grown a lot and now we have this goal of getting to USD 10 billion a year which is a really big number and together with the supplier community were working to achieve that he said.

McMillon who is on a two-day India tour also had a walk-through here that highlighted Walmarts India growth story covering exports digital innovation building inclusive supply chains and empowering communities.

Besides he interacted with some of the sellers who were trained under its supplier development programme Walmart Vriddhi.

On its e-commerce arm Flipkart and digital payments solution PhonePe McMillon said What our teams have done to grow those businesses over the years has been inspiring.

We are really learning a lot from those businesses the ability to innovate the ability to move with speed the ability to serve more and more customers to develop sellers to build an e-commerce marketplace business that has just a really bright future and the chance to create a lot of opportunities for everyone he added.

On PhonePe McMillon said the financial services businesses already reaches a lot of people and helps us make things more efficient easier.

We are very proud of whats happening with the small business... Im really excited to hear about the work thats happening with agriculture he said.

Last year Walmart said it had sourced goods worth over USD 30 billion from the Indian market in the last two decades for its global operations. Walmart is in India for over two decades.

Walmart Global sourcing set up office in Bengaluru in 2002 enabling Indian manufacturers to export to the US Canada Mexico central America and the UK supplying products to Walmart stores.

(With Inputs From PTI)