Research Paper on:
Wal-Mart’s Failure in Germany

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
not believe they could fail. Thus, when opportunities arose they were seized eagerly with the anticipation of growth. However, in international markets there are a number of influencing issues which  should be considered and utilised in the strategic planning. In the case of Wal-Mart in Germany there was a failure it appears that Wal-Mart simply used their uniform strategy without  considering the cultural influences in the development of the entrance and then the operating strategies. Wal-Mart entered the German market in 1997, but on the 28th of July 2006 the  company announced it would be withdrawing from the German market, selling the 85 stores to the German chain Metro AG (Misonzhnik, 2006). The main stumbling block for Wal-Mart was a  misunderstanding of the German market and culture. If we consider Wal-Marts entry and operation in Germany using a Porters Five Forces analysis, SWOT and PEST analysis the reasons for the  failure can be appreciated. Porters Five Forces Existing competition The competition in Germany was already very fierce. The company realised that the best method of enter into  a mature market was to make an acquisition as this would place the form in a better position to compete with the existing competition. It was with this initial  move that the problems may be traced as beginning. There were already indicators of this market being one that would be difficult to break into, at the time there were  no non German operators of discount retail chains in the country (MMR, 2003). The main competitors are Aldi, the market leader, Metro AG, Tengelmann, and Lidl & Schwarz (MMR, 2003).  Discounters as a whole account for 30% pf the food retail market (Euromonitor, 2005). Then main grocery chain is Edeka/AVA Group with a 20.1% share of the market followed