Wal-Mart to expand Canadian supercentres

Wal-Mart Canada plans to open 35 to 40 supercentres across Canada in 2010.

Through a combination of new openings, relocations and renovations of existing stores, the company will spend $500 million and create more than 6,500 jobs, it said Tuesday.

The company said specific store locations will be announced over the coming weeks and months.

Traditionally a department store retailer, Wal-Mart brought its supercentre concept, which includes groceries, to Canada in 2006. Major Canadian foodsellers engaged in price wars as a result, eating into profit margins to a level from which they are only now beginning to recover.

Although the company frequently meets local resistance when it plans openings in new markets, Wal-Mart's international operations have outpaced the growth rate at its core U.S. market for several quarters.

If the actual number of opening comes in closer to the high range of the estimate, the move will bring Wal-Mart Canada's store count to as many as 325 stores by the end of the year, including 124 supercentres and 201 conventional discount stores.

After opening its first location in Canada in 1994, the company has 317 locations in the country.

In a related move, the company said it will spend $115 million to build a refrigeration facility in Balzac, Alta., in the fall. The facility will create 1,400 jobs, the company said, and open in the fall of 2010.