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Wal*Mart's vice chairman Michael Duke is in India to assess the progress of the Bharti-Walmart JV, and he seems more than satisfied with the speed of developments, reports CNBC-TV18. He expects the first Cash & Carry store to open its doors to the public by the end of the year.

By Shereen Bhan, CNBC-TV18.

Our sense is that, this visit is also a reiteration really of the Bharti-Wal*Mart JV’s commitment to the Indian market given the fact that we’ve seen a lot of opposition, specifically in the Hindi heartland, in states like UP and Madhya Pradesh, as far as organised retail are concerned.

This is what Michael Duke had to say when we put that question of political opposition to him. He said the message to the Indian Government is still very positive. “We appreciate their support and we continue to engage with the government in a dialogue on FDI in retail,” Duke said.

This visit in a sense also hopes to put to rest any speculation on the speed or the urgency of the rollout plans as far as the Bharti-Wal-Mart JV is concerned. When we specifically put this question to him, Michael Duke said, “The Bharti-Wal*Mart JV has exceeded our expectations on speed and quality of talent.”

Now Rajan Mittal has categorically said that Bharti-Wal*Mart will unveil their plans in April. This could be with the merchandising strategy, the store rollout plans and the branding. Most importantly now, Rajan Mittal says they have zeroed in on a brand name. When we put that question to Michael Duke, on whether they would be okay if the Wal*Mart name was dropped from the front-end retail stores, he said, go right ahead and that they have no problem if Wal*Mart were not to appear on any of the front-end retail stores. In fact he said that in the 52 countries that Wal*Mart actually operates in, only 25% of the businesses carry the Wal*Mart name. So, they are very happy to go as local as they need to be, especially when the issue is politically sensitive. They have no issue whatsoever if the Wal*Mart name is dropped. So, it would be safe to assume then that the Bharti front-end retail stores would not carry the Wal*Mart name, but we will get a final confirmation on that in April.

The first Cash & Carry store that will be operated by Wal*Mart will be operational by the year-end. Bharti-Wal*Mart is expected to open 10-15 Cash & Carry stores in seven years and they hope to employ about 5,000 people. Real estate costs continue to be a challenge, but Mittal said that they are not agnostic as far as developments are concerned. They are in talks and negotiations to develop land banks with all sorts of developers.

Mittal also interestingly pointed out that the company is very optimistic about the opposition as far as organised retail is concerned. He said, “We expect a sea-change in attitude towards organised retail by next year.” When we asked him, it’s an election year and the opposition is likely to increase, he was sure about the fact that starting next year, they are going to see opposition to organised retail diminish. He also said that people are going to talk about creating job opportunities and the kind of mix that companies like Bharti-Wal*Mart are throwing up in terms of job opportunities. According to Mittal, 20% of the people employed will be housewives, that’s going to be something that the politicians are going to find very hard to ignore.

So, as of now the Bharti-Wal*Mart joint venture plans are on track. April is when the big announcement will be made in terms of store rollouts and branding. What is safe to assume is that Wal*Mart will not be on the front-end retail stores in terms of branding, and that they are happy with the progress that the joint venture has made as of now.

Source: Moneycontrol.com