Walmart/Tesco/Metro/Carrefour - These guys are all in the same boat in terms of
stretching out. Each is clearly dominant in its own relatively mature market and has been looking to foreign expansion to grow. They generally are not competing on each others' home turf - US/GB/Germany/France - (though Tesco has some stores here), but all are looking to China, Brazil, Africa, etc. for growth. They all bring low-cost products and food to high-distribution-cost markets, streamlining sourcing and distribution, much as Walmart did in rural US a few decades ago.
In Brazil, Carrefour had a few-decade head start on Walmart with its 'hypermarkets', but from 2006 to 2009 Walmart grew from half Carrefour's Brazilian hypermarket share to now just past Carrefour. Meanwhile, both Carrefour and Walmart just got abruptly ejected from Russia, and now Tesco is taking a stab there, while Walmart is instead jumping into Africa.
Without going overboard looking for financials, I just did a quick return-on-capital-employed look-up for all four for 2009 vs 2006 - a period when all were expanding internationally and at the same time experiencing slow or no growth at home:
ROCE.....2009.../...2006
Walmart...19.7 / 19.2
Tesco.....14.0 / 17.2
Metro.....17.4 / 17.6
Carrefour. 8.6 / 22.1
Current PE's, based on some 2010 consensus projections:
Walmart...13.6
Tesco.....12.4
Metro.....17.0
Carrefour.14.7
stretching out. Each is clearly dominant in its own relatively mature market and has been looking to foreign expansion to grow. They generally are not competing on each others' home turf - US/GB/Germany/France - (though Tesco has some stores here), but all are looking to China, Brazil, Africa, etc. for growth. They all bring low-cost products and food to high-distribution-cost markets, streamlining sourcing and distribution, much as Walmart did in rural US a few decades ago.
In Brazil, Carrefour had a few-decade head start on Walmart with its 'hypermarkets', but from 2006 to 2009 Walmart grew from half Carrefour's Brazilian hypermarket share to now just past Carrefour. Meanwhile, both Carrefour and Walmart just got abruptly ejected from Russia, and now Tesco is taking a stab there, while Walmart is instead jumping into Africa.
Without going overboard looking for financials, I just did a quick return-on-capital-employed look-up for all four for 2009 vs 2006 - a period when all were expanding internationally and at the same time experiencing slow or no growth at home:
ROCE.....2009.../...2006
Walmart...19.7 / 19.2
Tesco.....14.0 / 17.2
Metro.....17.4 / 17.6
Carrefour. 8.6 / 22.1
Current PE's, based on some 2010 consensus projections:
Walmart...13.6
Tesco.....12.4
Metro.....17.0
Carrefour.14.7
