Retail giant is back in growth mode, says its President and CEO Gonzalo Gebara.
In an exclusive interview while visiting the company’s fulfillment centre in Rocky View County just outside Calgary, Gebara told Retail Insider the retailer continues to look at ways to grow its business in Canada.
“We like to say that we are back in growth mode. We are going to be opening stores again. We’re going to continue to invest in our supply chain network . . . That’s very important for us. We want to continue to grow our e-commerce business. We’re going to continue to renovate our stores to bring the best standards for customers to have the best shopping experience. It’s a combination of different areas of focus where we will be continuing to invest so that we can accelerate growth for Walmart in Canada.
“This coming year, we will for sure open one, maybe two. Most, probably two. They will be Supercentres. We believe that the Supercentre concept is where the one-stop shop concept continues to be relevant for Canadian customers.”
Gebara said the company intends to continue to accelerate its e-commerce capabilities so that it can offer customers great options to have their groceries delivered, groceries picked up in the stores, general merchandise delivered or picked up in the stores.
“It’s a combination of resources that we are deploying and capabilities that we’re deploying so that our customers continue to make the choice to come to Walmart,” he added.
The two stores to open in 2025 are in the Toronto area. A new Supercentre will be located in Port Credit. The other location has not yet been announced.
Gebara said the company has approved three new stores for Alberta for the next few years.
Walmart has plans to invest about $300 million in Alberta to build those new stores in Calgary, Fort McMurray, Edmonton as well as modernizing more of its store fleet in the province.
“We are going everywhere in the next few years,” he said.
Customers looking for value and convenience
Gebara said the company is seeing similar patterns that it’s seen in the last 12 to 18 months with customers weighing heavily on value.
“And that’s where Walmart does a good job. We think that we show very good value in the way that we show up for our customers,” he said.
“I think customers also want convenience. They want us to show up in different ways, and we’re trying to offer all the different ways and different channels in which they can connect with Walmart, and I think that’s important.
“The other thing that I’m seeing is slow but steady improvement in consumer confidence. There’s some general indicators that are moving in the right direction as inflation goes down, interest rates go down. We believe that’s going to bring some positive feelings on the side of consumption, but still, we know that consumer confidence is not at the level where it should be. It’s going to continue to take a while.”
He said Walmart was built on the concept of everyday low prices and “we work very hard to provide low prices for customers everywhere we operate.”
“Canada is a very important market for us. We want to continue to grow here. We want to continue to serve more Canadians,” Gebara explained. “We have a very good business here in Canada and we think it can be even better. We just need to make the right investments, continue to put the customer at the centre of our value proposition and be very aware of their needs and the evolution of their needs so that we can adapt and evolve fast. I think that’s what’s making Walmart around the world do well for all the customers.
“We’re fast in adapting to new trends and then we just need to stay true to our everyday low price philosophy, showing value to our customers, convenience and being a place where customers can trust that they can find everything they want at the lower prices. That’s what we’re doing and that’s what we’re going to continue to do in Canada for at least 30 more years.”
Dealing with union activity
The company has been in the news recently with some of its workplaces looking to unionize.
When asked about that, Gebara said: “We believe that we have a great purpose. And we are all very proud to work for a purpose where we want to give the chance to people to save money and live better. So I think that’s great. All of us who work here we work for that purpose and then we have very strong values. Our values are how we bring our Walmart culture to life.
“And that’s the way we believe that we offer a great experience for all of us, the associates of Walmart. We invest in our associates, we develop ourselves, we provide resources so that we can all build a career at Walmart. There’s many, many examples of lots of associates who joined Walmart just for a job and built a career and many years, decades later, they are leaders of our organization.
“Unfortunately we had some areas of our business that had union activity. We’re disappointed with it. We believe that the best way to connect with our associates is directly and not through an intermediary, but we’re working on it and we will continue to stay true to our values to our leadership principles and continue to support our associates so that they can continue to choose us to be a great place to work.”
Recently, Walmart Canada announced the company is investing an additional $46 million in pay increases and benefit enhancements for eligible supply chain associates.
“This is the latest step in the retailer’s journey to invest in associates through a combination of wages, leading benefit plans, skills training and education offerings at no cost to the associate,” it said.
Earlier this year, Walmart Canada announced over $145 million in new investments in wages for logistics, fleet and retail associates.
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