Getting back to work and catching up on emails, I was struck by the ongoing pace of internationalisation in the retail sector, despite the much-discussed global economic downturn. Many of the big players have been busy expanding their empires (while a few others have been struggling).
I am on the mailing list of a mob called Planet Retail, and they send out a daily newsfeed. Over the past month alone, here are the various international expansion moves they have mentioned (both new FDI and also significant within-host country investments):
- Office Depot (US) and partner Gigante (Mexico) into Colombia
- Wal-Mart (US) building stronger ties to Russia with an eye to open stores some time
- Wal-Mart (US) definitely into Chile
- Quiznos (US) into Venezuela
- RadioShack (US) buying out Mexican partner
- KFC and Pizza Hut (US) into Moldova
- Costco (US) contemplating France, Spain and India
- Costco (US) definitely into Australia
- Hamleys (UK) into Russia
- Alliance Boots (UK) expanding operations in Norway
- Aldi (German) into New York City
- Auchan (France) expanding operations in Romania
- Metro Cash and Carry (Germany) expanding Indian operations into Punjab
- Schwarz Lidl (Germany) into Bulgaria
- Tesco (UK) expanding Chinese operations into Shandong
- Rewe (Germany) expanding Russian operations
- Woolworths (Australia) potentially into India
- Lotte (Korea) into Vietnam
- Best Denki (Japan) into Kuwait
- Yamada Denki (Japan) into China
- Quanjude (China) into Taiwan
I have listed them by the home continents of the expanding firms. As you can see there is a pretty even mix of countries in terms of home and host here. Most interestingly from the perspective of a researcher who looks at the geographic reach of multinationals, a good proportion of these moves have been outside of these firms’ home regions (as typically defined). I have highlighted these moves in green. Given retailing is one of the less-internationalised sectors in the global economy, it is fascinating that such expansion continues to occur.
International BS Blog 
