Word: retailing
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...Market pressures have contributed to the dilemmas of disease prevention. The large supermarket chains that now control much of retail food distribution have driven down consumer prices partly by centralizing production, cramming livestock into large holding markets and slaughterhouses that are virtual hothouses for disease. "Supermarkets have a big role to play for that because they insist on having all their meat taken to one abattoir to be slaughtered," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. Add to that the expansion of global trade in livestock and meat products-the market has grown by an average of 9% a year...
That great American retailing machine, Wal-Mart Stores, just keeps rolling along, doesn't it? Even in the current "challenging retail environment," Wal-Mart announced last week that sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31 increased a respectable 16% to $191.3 billion, while earnings hit a record $6.3 billion-a 17% jump. But hidden amid that thicket of good news is a thorny problem: Wal-Mart's European operations aren't reaching the levels of growth needed to make the company's expensive leap across the pond pay off. "Wal-Mart has not yet succeeded in markets that...
...billion. Profits of $1.1 billion may sound robust, but Wal-Mart has invested at least $17 billion overseas, giving it a return of just over 6%. "You'd be better off putting the money in a bank-or under a mattress," maintains Richard Hyman, chairman of British retail consultancy Verdict Research. Indeed, in the U.S., Wal-Mart regularly enjoys a return on investment of around...
...Scott accentuates the positive, saying there are hopeful signs in Germany: an increase in comparable (same-store) sales growth and better gross margins. But Nikolai Baltruschat, European retail analyst at Deutsche Bank, remains skeptical: "If you come from a base that far below the industry average, it's easy to report favorable growth...
...History shows that Wal-Mart is smart enough to devise solutions and rich enough to carry them out-especially since Europe is key to its plans to become a global player. Michael Poynor, retail director at London consultancy COBA Group, says Wal-Mart could achieve the scale it needs by taking a pan-European tact and scooping up another big chain in a third country. But that will take more time and money. And investors may go along for the ride for only as long as the good times continue to roll at a double-digit pace...