Wal-Mart to open up to 110 stores in Brazil

Wal-Mart will open up to 110 new stores in Brazil in 2010 with a total investment of 2.2 billion reais (USD $1.2 billion). The expansion plan exceeds the previous year's outlay by 40 percent. It will be the biggest investment the company has made in Brazil since it entered the country 14 years ago, Hector Nunez, who heads the domestic operations for the company, told reporters recently in Sao Paulo. 

Wal-Mart competes in Brazil, a nation of 190 million people, with market leader Grupo Pao de Acucar and French company Carrefour, the country’s second-largest retailer.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart Stores has named the head of its Walmart de Mexico business as president and CEO of its Walmart Latin America regional operations. 

The retailer, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, said that Eduardo Solorzano will oversee Wal-Mart operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico. Solorzano will be based in Wal-Mart's Latin American regional office in Miami. 

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