Wal-Mart’s slower growth won’t alter Lincoln plans

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BY MATT OLBERDING/Lincoln Journal Star

Despite recent announcements by Wal-Mart that it is slowing down the growth of its store footprint, two planned Lincoln stores are still on track, a company representative said Tuesday.

Ryan Horn, a Wal-Mart spokesman based in Omaha, said a 175,000-square-foot supercenter at 84th and Adams streets will open in “the latter half of 2008,” while a proposed supercenter at U.S. 77 and Warlick Boulevard could open as early as 2009.

In an interview in July, Horn had  said Wal-Mart was still evaluating the  U.S. 77 site and a new store was not “100 percent.”

In June, Wal-Mart revised downward the number of stores it said it planned to build  to around 190 to 200 this year and about 170 a year in the future, compared to a historical standard of around 280 a year. It also said some planned store openings would be delayed.

The company reiterated that stance in a meeting Tuesday with analysts and investors at which it also said its sales growth would decline to 9 percent this year from nearly 12 percent the year before and then be between 5 and 8 percent the next two years.

Horn said Tuesday’s announcement, which came from  Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe, was nothing new, and “I don’t see it affecting our timelines in Lincoln or anywhere in Nebraska at this point.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story. Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.