Walmart Files Shareholders Meeting Materials

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. today filed its proxy statement in preparation for its upcoming annual shareholders’ meeting on June 5 in Fayetteville.

The company also issued its 2015 annual report, along with its Global Responsibility Report and Global Compliance Program Report.

All of those materials can be found at this link.

“Walmart has a bright future,” Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon said 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.”

The 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 Rob Walton, as well as the CEOs of each business segment and e-commerce.

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.”

The shareholders’ meeting gets under way at 7:30 a.m. on June 5 at Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus.