Wal-mart de Mexico announced that an investment over $1.3 billion is going to be made in Mexico. On Wednesday, The director of Walmex Guilherme Loureiro had a meeting with the Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto when they announced that the investment in Mexico this big will open more than 10.000 new permanent jobs over the next upcoming few years.
The investment is funded by Walmex and is completely necessary to expand Walmart’s Mexican business.
Mexico is one of the country’s biggest retailer and one of the company’s most profitable markets. However, this does not mean there will be job transfers from U.S to Mexico. This new investment actually means building new distribution centers, and upgrading the already existing ones. Walmart’s authorities also reported that their company has invested more than 80 billion pesos, around $3.93 billion over the past four years.
After the announcements they expect the U.S president-elect Donald Trump to act accordingly when people start reacting on social media about this particular investment in Mexico made by Walmex. After the election, the new president Donald Trump is threatening to all U.S companies that are working south from the border. He does not want any of the companies to shift jobs down in Mexico.
The U.S president-elect had an agreement with Gregory Hayes, the CEO of United Technologies Corp. The agreement was to keep half of the 2.100 Indiana jobs from shifting down to Mexico.
Walmart is aiming to double their sales in Mexico by 2024. To achieve this, Walmex wants to boost their stores by running a discount retail and expand their fresh food business.
Mr. Loureiro is worried about Trump’s reaction to this because Walmart’s investment is the top-money investment that is going to be made in Mexico by far. Walmart is the biggest private employer in the country, and it has already created over 200.000 jobs.
They have more than 2.300 stores in Mexico, and with the new investment, they plan to open 1000 more over the next ten years.
Walmart’s shareholders at their meeting in June marked the Mexican market as a top priority. David Cheesewright, head of Walmart’s overseas division declared that the biggest number of stores owned by Walmart outside the U.S. are stationed in Mexico.
Walmex (Wal-mart de Mexico) over the past years had their revenue growing up to 10.8 percent. On the other hand, Walmart’s overseas market has struggled to expand in China and Britain.