Walmart Canada to open 30 new stores this month

Discount retail giant Walmart Canada says it will open 30 new stores across Canada this month, setting a new record for grand openings.

The Mississauga-based company said Tuesday that two of the stores will be supercentre conversions and 28 will be former Zellers outlets.

The 30 stores in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and Atlantic Canada will employ more than 3,000 people and add more than 2.4 million square feet of retail space to the company’s operations, Waknart said.

“This is an exciting month for Walmart Canada,” said chief operations officer Jim Thompson. “We are Canada’s fastest growing retailer and our 30 openings in October demonstrate our commitment to bringing every day low prices to Canadians from coast-to-coast.”

The 30 projects represent a large portion of the 73 locations the company plans to complete in the current fiscal year, for a total addition of 4.6 million square feet of retail space by the end of Jan. 31, 2013.

The company expects to generate more than 14,000 store, trade and construction jobs and invest more than $750 million into the expansion projects.

Walmart is Canada’s largest department store chain by revenues and operates 335 locations and employs nearly 90,000 people. It is preparing for the entry into Canada in 2013 of Target, North America’s No. 2 discount retailer and a rival to Walmart in the American retail market.