METRO Cash & Carry India Pvt Ltd, the local arm of German wholesale major Metro Group, has appointed former COO of Walmart India Arvind Mediratta as managing director.
Mediratta will replace Bakshi, who had relinquished his post last October. Mediratta’s last stint was with Walmart USA where he was corporate vice president (merchandising).
Mediratta, who had joined Walmart in 2007, played a key role in setting up its Indian cash-and-carry business, the company said in a statement. Prior to joining Walmart, Mediratta had served several companies such as Yum! Yum! Brands, Whirlpool India, Marico and Procter & Gamble.
Bakshi, who was working with METRO Cash & Carry since 2010, was earlier associated with PepsiCo. He was chairman of PepsiCo India and later moved to the company's Asia headquarters in Hong Kong as head of commercial operations.
METRO Cash and Carry started operations in India in 2001 and was the first foreign retailer to open its outlet in the country. It has been running its wholesale retail outlets for over a decade. METRO Cash & Carry sells about 8,500 products across categories including food and grocery, health and beauty products, electronics items and apparel.
METRO GROUP, one of the largest retailing companies globally, operates around 2,200 stores in 32 countries and has around 265,000 employees.
Over the last few years, the retail sector in the country has seen a series of changes at the senior management level.
Bharti Retail, the privately held retailing arm of Bharti Enterprises Ltd, had appointed Craig Wimsatt from Wal-Mart Stores Inc as an advisor in 2014.
The same year, Wal-Mart India Pvt. Ltd, wholly owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, appointed Murali Lanka as chief operating officer (COO)—Murali had replaced Mediratta after he moved to Wal-Mart US. Last year, Wal-Mart India appointed Pankaj More as head - technology.
