Are You a Woman Entrepreneur in India? You Can Now Supply to Walmart
Forbes India
The global retail giant recently felicitated as many as 32 women entrepreneurs in its pilot Walmart Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme in India, in an attempt to strengthen its focus on increasing diversity in the supply chain. Of them, the retailer has identified eight entrepreneurs as suppliers, since their products fitted the assortment.
Going forward, Walmart India plans to launch a similar programme to train women entrepreneurs in professional and soft skills to help them build businesses. Walmart India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of US retail giant Walmart Stores.
“As far as gender diversity or gender equality is concerned, India is not at a great place,” said Krish Iyer, President and CEO, Walmart India, on the sidelines of the graduation ceremony of the Walmart Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme.
“It becomes the responsibility of both public and private sector to provide a level playing field to women for creating equal opportunity,” he added.
In September 2011, Walmart launched its Global Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative and through it, by the end of 2016, it could source $20 billion from women for its US business. In India, where Walmart has about 21 cash-and-carry stores, it currently has a pipeline of about 50 women suppliers on board.
In India, Walmart is currently present in states including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh among others. Going forward, it plans to strengthen its presence in the same states and ramp up the number to 50 by 2021. “We are on track. We have about 16 stores in the pipeline which are in different stages of construction,” said Iyer, adding, “We are currently not looking at new states but have been studying Karnataka with a lot of interest. A deeper penetration in existing states makes better business sense.”
