Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (“Deloitte”), in conjunction with STORES Magazine, is pleased to present the 11th annual Global Powers of Retailing. This report identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for the companies’ fiscal year 2006 (encompasses fiscal years ended through June 2007). The report also provides an outlook for the global economy; an analysis of market capitalization in the industry; and a discussion of 10 major trends affecting retailers.

The Top 10 retailers’ share of total Top 250 sales continues to inch up. With combined sales of $978.5 billion in fiscal 2006, a healthy 10.2% rise over 2005, the world’s 10 largest retailers captured 30.1% of Top 250 sales. This compares with 29.4% in 2005, when this same group of companies comprised the Top 10 leader board.

While the names remained the same, Tesco overtook Metro to reach the #4 spot in the rankings. The rest of the Top 10 maintained their positions. Wal-Mart increased its lead over #2 Carrefour in 2006, with retail sales growth more than double the pace of its rival. Schwarz Group (operator of Lidl hard discount stores) remained secure in tenth place, outpacing direct competitor Aldi, #11.

Growth rates for the European retailers, especially those based in the saturated and intensely competitive markets of France, Germany and the UK, were sub-par. In search of continued growth, French and German companies, in particular, have expanded well beyond their domestic borders. On average, the French companies had retail operations in 15.1 countries in 2006. German retailers were doing business in an average 13.7 countries. These rates are more than double the average of 6.2 countries for the Top 250 as a whole. As a result, these retailers tend to be considerably larger than retailers based in other regions, but room for continued expansion has become more limited.