Walmart is at the Top of Latin America's Retailers
From a single shop in 1958, Walmart México y Centroamérica now dominates LatAm retail with more stores than all Mexican grocers combined.
Present-day Walmart's Mexico and Central America division began in 1958, when siblings Jeronimo, Placido, and Manuel Arango founded a 'Central de Ropa' shop in Mexico City. Shortly after, the three brothers changed their clothing operation to a retail shop and changed the name to 'Aurrera,' which means 'forward' in the Basque language.
The single shop grew from $4M to $40M pesos in the first and second years, indicating an immense opportunity for expansion, and expand it did. By 1970, the brothers had created different concepts of now nationally recognized stores under their company: Superama and Bodega Aurrera (retail), Vips (restaurant), and Suburbia (back to clothing!).
It wasn't until 1991 that the Arangos began what would become a giant retail alliance with Walmart, by opening the US brand's first store in Mexico. Six years later, the alliance became a 50-50 joint venture, and by the year 2000, Walmart acquired a controlling share of the company, turning the brothers' life's work into 'Walmart de México.'
Today, it's the largest retail chain in Latin America by revenue, and (as we reported first) operates more stores than all other Mexican grocery chains combined. As retail evolves into e-commerce (as evidenced by Mercado Libre making the list), the company has remained committed to its development in the space, growing 22% in just the latest quarter.
As a side note: Our chart shows that the top 2 retail players, by a vast margin, are from Mexico. Just like Brazil is the region's capital of capital, Mexico is the capital of retail.