 | |
- close
- close
| |||||||||
Wal Mart Internationals surging sales
FT.com -- Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, beat expectations after its US discount stores accounted for about 50% of all US retail growth during 2008 – while its full-year global sales passed $400 billion for the first time, and profits hit $13.4 billion.
Wal-Mart's strong international performance (at stores in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom), with a 5-week sales increase of almost 19% (see bottom chart), which might suggest that the economic slowdown in the U.S. has not spread internationally, and also suggests that U.S. companies can remain profitable from strong international sales despite a domestic slowdown.
“We are pleased with the overall performance of our International markets,” said Mike Duke, vice chairman responsible for Wal-Mart International. “We had strong sales performance in key countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil and China.”
Wal-Mart announced July 10th, that June sales rose more than analysts’ estimates as shoppers facing soaring gasoline and food costs used $86.1 billion in tax rebate cheques to buy discounted clothing and grocery items. The retailer had said previously it was unsure if it would receive a sales boost from the rebates, but then in May, Wal-Mart reported higher than expected sales. Same store sales climbed 6.1%, faster than earlier predictions of as much as 4%.
The retailer said that profit for the July quarter would increase to $0.82-0.84 a share, higher than a May projection of $0.78-0.81.
| ||||||
|
|
