Walmart is to cut some 250 jobs in its Chinese operational division and shutter a regional management office in the northeast as it ploughs ahead with its expansion and restructuring plan.
The world’s biggest retailer was on track to open more than 30 stores and distribution centres while hiring an additional 6,000 people in China by the end of the year, it said on Tuesday in its first detailed update of the revamp.
Walmart is engaged in what it calls a “major transformation” in China in the face of stiff competition from domestic rivals and a rapid acceleration in online shopping, with plans to open 110 new outlets in the world’s second-largest economy by 2016. It now has about 400 stores, including hypermarkets and Sam’s Clubs, and employs 125,000 staff in China.