Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported an increase of 1.8% in same store sales, which beat the 1.3% analysts expected, during its most recent quarterly report.
Doug McMillon, president and CEO said during a scripted portion of the earnings report held Feb. 21 that the company’s total revenue grew 3% in the quarter and 3.1% for the year.
McMillon praised the company’s efforts to reduce inventory and train employees, particularly the newly-established training academies.
“We expect to train more than 225,000 department managers and hourly supervisors by this fall,” he said, during the call. “In fact, I recently visited a store in Morrisville, N.C., where they had reduced inventory so significantly that the backroom was empty enough for them to build a training academy there. These initiatives are paying off for our customers through cleaner stores, friendlier service and faster check-out times.”
Wal-Mart reported $485.9 billion in total revenue in fiscal 2017, the company says, an increase of 3.1%.
Visit corporate.walmart.com for an interactive view of the company’s quarterly report.
Want to know McMillion’s three predictions for the future of retail? Check out this post from blog.walmart.com.