BENTONVILLE, Ark. April 22, 2015 — Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today filed its Proxy Statement in preparation for its upcoming Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on Friday, June 5. In addition, the company issued its 2015 Annual Report along with its Global Responsibility Report and Global Compliance Program Report.
“Walmart has a bright future,” commented Wal-Mart Stores Inc., President and Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon in his letter to shareholders. “We have a real and meaningful purpose – to save people money so they can live better. We’re embracing change so we can deliver that promise more effectively. We are investing to run better stores and e-commerce globally and excel at the integration of digital and physical retail, providing our customers with a seamless shopping experience.”
Annual Report: “Winning
the Future of Retail – One Customer at a Time”
The 2015 Annual
Report provides shareholders with an overview of Walmart's performance in the
last fiscal year and the key strategies that management is executing to serve
customers and shareholders. The enhanced digital report contains expanded
content, including video messages from McMillon, Chairman of the Board of
Directors Rob Walton, as well as the CEOs of each business segment and
e-commerce. The report can be accessed here.
In the report, McMillon reviews how the company’s framework for growth leverages four dimensions of its customer value proposition – price, access, assortment and experience.
- Price: The company is focused on expanding everyday low prices to more markets globally. To deliver price leadership, Walmart continues to underscore everyday low cost through improvements in supply chain, processes and other efficiencies.
- Access: The future of retail is integrating stores and online together seamlessly. The company is investing globally to improve mobile capabilities and test alternative access points.
- Assortment: Customers increasingly want more variety and Walmart provides quality merchandise, desirable national brands and great private label options. The company expects to surpass 10 million items available on walmart.com in the U.S. this year.
- Experience: Walmart is investing in increased associate wages, training and development, which it believes will also improve the store and club experience for customers.
The Annual Report also includes comments on strong
shareholder governance from Walton, who states, “Walmart has an exceptional Board that is highly diverse,
from ethnicity and gender to business experience and tenure. Underscoring the
Board’s commitment to its leadership structure, we have added a healthy mix of
directors with fresh perspectives over the past few years. Their views have
complemented the vision and work of our longer-serving directors and
demonstrate how we are strengthening the Board’s oversight to keep pace with
the changing retail dynamics. This is especially true as the Board oversees
management’s execution of Walmart’s enterprise strategy.”
2015 Annual
Shareholders’ Meeting and Proxy Statement
The company began distributing its Proxy Statement today
with details of its Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. The meeting will be held on
Friday, June 5, at 7:30 a.m. (CDT) in Bud Walton Arena on the University of
Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, Ark. Only shareholders of record as of the
close of business on April 10, 2015, are entitled to
vote their shares in advance of or at this year’s meeting.
Shareholders will vote on 15 director nominees, three company proposals and five shareholder proposals. Douglas N. Daft, a member of Walmart’s Board since 2005, is retiring from the board and will not stand for reelection.
“I’d like to thank Doug for 10 years of service to Walmart’s Board and to our shareholders,” said Walton. “He brought us more than four decades of business experience and perspective on markets around the world. His long tenure with a global beverage company and international business acumen provided us with unique insights into brand management, marketing and strategic planning. We also appreciate the key insights Doug provided through two successful CEO transitions and the many valuable contributions he made to our Compensation, Nominating and Governance Committee.”
Walmart has continued to enhance the format of the Proxy Statement to provide a clear and detailed overview of the topics that will be covered at the Shareholders’ Meeting. The changes were influenced by feedback from investors who provided input during the year. The company’s Proxy Statement can be read online. Shareholders unable to attend the 2015 Annual Shareholders' Meeting in person may view a live webcast on the company’s Investor Relations site.
Global Responsibility
Report
Walmart’s 2015 Global
Responsibility Report (“GRR”), the company’s eighth, outlines the company’s
major milestones in fiscal year 2015 tied to social and environmental
responsibility, specifically highlighting Walmart’s achievements to create
economic opportunity for associates, enhance the sustainability of its
operations and supply chains, and serve the communities in which it
operates. The report is available
digitally and can be viewed online.
Global Compliance
Program Report
The company’s second
annual report on its global compliance program highlights significant strides
being made to elevate Walmart’s compliance program globally against a defined
set of objectives in three key categories: people; policies and processes; and
systems and analytics.
Jay Jorgensen, executive vice president, global chief ethics and compliance officer said, “From hiring and realigning our compliance staff to utilizing technologies and measuring the effectiveness of our processes and controls, Walmart is making ongoing progress to enhance our compliance and corporate governance procedures through a unified program around the globe. We have accomplished a great deal this past year to strengthen our continued commitment to doing business the right way.”
As explained in the
report, the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors concluded the company had
achieved significant progress towards its goals in enhancing its compliance
program. The detailed report is available here.
Investor Relations App
This year's Shareholders’
Meeting materials are also available through the redesigned Walmart Investor
Relations App, which is available free on the company’s
website. The app is available on iPad®, iPhone®, and Android™
mobile devices.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money
and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores, online, and through
their mobile devices. Each
week, we serve nearly 260 million customers who visit our 11,462 stores under 72
banners in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries. With
fiscal year 2015 revenue of $486 billion, Walmart employs more than 2 million
associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability,
corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about
Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com on
Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and
on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online
merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.
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