Doug McMillon said that many of Walmart's administrative buildings, including its main base, were beyond their shelf-life.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer by sales, has announced plans to build a new headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Chief executive Doug McMillon said the new base would replace Walmart’s outdated existing offices – also in Bentonville – and would address the “patchwork of more than 20 buildings in Northwest Arkansas” that Walmart currently uses to administer its business.
Walmart’s current headquarters have been in operation for more than 45 years, but in many cases they lack natural light or enough parking spaces for the number of people who work there. Like many of the buildings, the main site – Walmart’s Home Office in Bentonville – is significantly beyond its shelf-life, McMillon explained.
And the disparate nature of its corporate set-up is unsustainable, he continued. “They are expensive and inefficient to maintain, costing millions of dollars of accelerating upkeep every year,” McMillon said. “And because they are so dispersed, they literally encourage us to work in silos and cause us to waste time and energy traveling between locations, many of which have inadequate parking options.
“For some time now, we’ve been concerned that this ad hoc office network actually inhibits our ability to compete in the rapidly changing retail landscape.”
The new campus is expected to take between five and seven years to build, and will house 17,000 employees. McMillon said the move would help it to modernise and become more efficient in the face of increasing competition from online retailers like Alibaba and Amazon, which in recent months has experimented with bricks-and-mortar convenience stores before making a major play for retailer Whole Foods.
It will enable “a more digitally native workforce and space that encourages greater collaboration and speed,” he said.
As well as extra parking and natural light, the site will feature meal services and fitness facilities for staff. It is also hoped that the headquarters will allow Walmart to attract and retain the best talent, making it more competitive.
The retailer will begin working with city and state officials, as well as other stakeholders, to move the project forward.
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