Walmart turns focus to sustainability efforts in its Latin American markets

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 2/4/2011 1:52:33 PM

Miami - Walmart sees much growth potential for itself in the Spanish-speaking market and intends to use its sustainability expertise to help further develop and fuel its business regionally in the coming years, noted the retail giant's Latin American ceo Eduardo Solozano earlier this week during his speech at the annual "Outlook of the Americas" luncheon hosted by the Association of American Chambers of Commerce (AACCLA).

"This is a key region for Walmart with significant growth opportunities in the coming years," Solorzano said. "We are sharing best practices across markets and developing new formats to serve the unique customs and needs of Latin America customers, but it will take leveraging the company's expertise in sustainability to manage costs."

He said in order to sustain Walmart's growth in the region, "we cannot exponentially increase our costs or impact on the environment. Our approach must be agile and innovative to meet the challenges in a very diverse region."

For this reason, he continued, the retailer is moving more aggressively to integrate into its business strategy "a holistic sustainability plan for 100% renewable energy, zero waste and selling products that sustain people and the environment" - a process Walmart calls "sustainagility."

In fiscal 2010, Walmart reported $36.6 billion in revenue for Latin America.

Walmart opened its first Latin American - a Sam's Club in Mexico - 20 years ago. Today, the retailer operates 3,300 stores in nine Latin American countries.