Amid rumours that the world’s largest retailer will buy Turkey’s Ramstore supermarket chain, Wal-Mart has told just-food that it has investigated expansion in Eastern Europe, which it views as a “very interesting market”.
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Ramstore is a joint venture between Turkey’s Migros Turk and Koc Holdings.
According to a report in the Russian daily Vedomosti, which cited an unnamed manager from the Turkish chain’s Russian unit Ramenka, Wal-Mart hopes to acquire the chain within the next two years. If the acquisition of Ramstore does go ahead, it would provide the retailer with a foothold in Turkey and Russia.
“In general Eastern European markets are very interesting to us and we are monitoring the situation there,” Amy Wyatt of Wal-Mart International told just-food, declining to comment on the specific rumour.
“We did send a research team in to study the Russian market about two years ago. Nothing specific has come of that, but we are interested in opportunities in the market,” she continued.
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By GlobalDataThe paper also suggests that Russia’s Alfa Group, which controls Russia’s largest retailer X5 Retail Group, is interested in acquiring Ramstore.
