Retailers Warm Up to Russia

Big retailers are gearing up for another battle on the potentially lucrative emerging-market shop floor: Russia.

Recent weeks have brought a trail of hints that U.S. retail titan Wal-Mart (WMT Quote), France's Carrefour and U.K. retailer Tesco are making preparations to set up shop in this relatively undeveloped but rapidly growing consumer economy.

Last week the Russian newspaper Vedemosti reported that Carrefour, the world's second-largest retailer by sales after Wal-Mart, was setting up shop in Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar in the south of the country. The newspaper claimed that it had received a tip from a local real estate broker that Carrefour has recently made two large purchases of land in the districts. Carrefour does not deny the claims, though it says it is company policy not to discuss deals before they are officially announced.

Meanwhile, Karusel, a Russian hypermarket, said last month it was in talks with Wal-Mart about a possible sale of its chain.

"Russia is a growing retail market, and we're definitely looking at it," says Amy Wyatt, Wal-Mart's international corporate communications director, who declined to comment more specifically about Wal-Mart's intentions in the country. "There's no one set approach that we have to entering a market; sometimes we choose to grow organically, sometimes we partner up and sometimes we look to grow by acquisition -- but I would say that in our experience it does work very well when we have a strong local partner on the ground."