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”.
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.
The paper also suggests that Russia’s Alfa Group, which controls Russia’s largest retailer X5 Retail Group, is interested in acquiring Ramstore.
