Wal-Mart Stores is expanding in Canada, the world’s leading retailer announced today.
The company is planning to build 29 supercenters in Canada by the end of January 2016, according to a news release. Wal-Mart (WMT) is also expanding its distribution network in the country.
All told, the investment in Canada will cost $270 million ($340 million Canadian), add 230,000 square feet of retail space, and create 3,700 construction jobs, 1,000 store jobs and 200 jobs in distribution centers, the retailer said.
The exact locations of the new stores will be announced in the coming weeks. These new stores will bring the total store count in Canada to 396.
The move by Wal-Mart, of course, comes on the heels of rival Target’s (TGT) well-publicized retreat from the Great White North. Target’s failure in Canada was largely blamed on empty shelves and bad store locations.
Target said its northern expansion led the retailer to book a massive $5.4 billion charge in the fourth quarter to reflect the loss from the investment.
The exit from Canada came after Target moved aggressively to open over a hundred stores quickly in the market, but was criticized almost immediately for doing a poor job of replicating its American shopping experience. Though sales have been rising, the division remained deeply unprofitable.
