Walmart chief Doug McMillon praises Greg Foran

The CEO of Walmart has singled out Australian Greg Foran for doing a ‘masterful’ job running the US operations.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon addresses the National Retail Federation's conference in New York.

The president and chief executive of global supermarket giant Walmart has singled out Australian executive and one-time candidate for the CEO role at Woolworths, Greg Foran, for doing a “masterful” job running Walmart’s US operations.

Walmart’s global CEO Doug McMillon said Mr Foran was doing a “good job” and was a “real talent”, potentially marking the Australian as a contender to lead Walmart when there is a change of leadership.

He also gave an upbeat assessment of the economy, both in the US and globally, saying he was seeing the kind of optimism among shoppers he hadn’t seen in a while.

Mr McMillon spoke to The Australian after leaving the stage of the National Retail Federation convention in New York, where he praised Mr Foran before an audience of thousands of attendees and Walmart executives for doing a “masterful” job running the chain’s biggest region. He said Mr Foran was driving “solutions for customers that are seamless, and that is ultimately where we can win’’.

Mr Foran is president and CEO of Walmart US, where he is responsible for more than 4600 Walmart stores, one million staff and a business that turns over $US307 billion ($386bn).

Mr McMillon also praised Mr Foran for his work in weaving together the bricks-and-mortar stores and Walmart’s online offering, especially after the company last year paid $US3.3bn to acquire online retail business Jet.com.

“He is a real talent,’’ Mr McMillon told The Australian.

Walmart’s gain was Woolworths’ loss. Mr Foran was the head of supermarkets for Australia’s largest supermarket chain until 2011 when he quit after missing out on the top job to Grant O’Brien.

Mr Foran, the father of NRL star Kieran Foran, was the favourite to take the helm at Woolworths when former CEO Michael Luscombe retired in 2011, but was passed over for Mr O’Brien.

There has always been a strong relationship between Walmart and Woolworths, with former Woolworths boss Roger Corbett sitting on the Walmart board. The companies also share information and study tours, with a recent meeting between executives providing an opportunity to swap intelligence about Amazon. At that meeting Walmart executives told their counterparts at Woolworths that they couldn’t beat Amazon by just copying it, or matching it on prices, but only by constantly aiming to stay a step ahead.

Asked about the threat to Australian supermarkets from Amazon’s arrival, Mr McMillon signalled he had confidence in the chains competing with the US giant. “I think the retailers in Australia will figure that out. They are pretty smart.’’

Turning to the broader retail sector, Mr McMillon said demands from the consumer were helping to blend bricks and mortar stores with online.

“What we think is actually happening that is so promising for us is that the customer in the way that they live their lives today, and the way they are going to live their lives in the future, actually bring that store experience and that e-commerce experience together,” Mr McMillon said. “There are so many ways you can help people save time and have access to merchandise by using the combination of the two.

“There is so much today that is possible. (The consumer wants to know) did you take the friction out? Did you save me time, did you help me be informed about what it is that I am buying — is good for humanity, is it good for the planet?”

Mr McMillon said consumers wanted to know more about the products they were buying and about the company they were buying from.

He said the global economic environment was good, as low petrol prices and tax cuts on the horizon helped to bolster US consumer confidence.

“So we are in a good spot right now from a consumption point of view and a purchasing point of view.’’

The reporter travelled to NRF 2018 courtesy of Microsoft.