Vaudreuil-Dorion will ultimately not receive its $100 million order fulfillment center from American giant Walmart, announced last year, as the American multinational now prefers to modernize eight stores on Quebec soil, the company announced Thursday.
“Instead of moving forward with the opening of the previously announced distribution center in Vaudreuil-Dorion, we have decided to accelerate the modernization of our existing network,” Steeve Azoulay, spokesman, confirmed to the Journal. Word from Walmart.
“By the end of our next fiscal year, we plan to invest approximately $100 million to upgrade eight stores in the province,” he added. VIVA MEDIA first reported on the multinational company’s decision on Wednesday.
100 million dollar project
In September 2022, Le Journal reported that Walmart wanted to build its first $100 million order fulfillment center with 225 jobs at MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
When asked by Le Journal, the city of Vaudreuil-Dorion was unable to provide any information about the canceled project in its territory. The city claimed it had only recently received the news from Développement Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
“Our organization does not support such large-scale projects financially,” said Joanne Brunet, managing director, when asked.
Global giant
Walmart made a profit of almost $16 billion in 2023. More than 1.6 million people work in the company.
Walmart says it has invested $120 million in its stores here over the past two years and purchased $3.5 billion worth of products from 480 suppliers in Quebec last year alone. The multinational corporation has been present in the country since 1994.
Last August, the American giant announced the opening of its first new store in Quebec in ten years. More than $20 million was invested in this new store, which has everything a grocery store could offer, in the midst of a period of inflation.
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