Does Walmart Owns Dollar Tree?
Since Walmart is one of the largest retailers, they have a couple of investments in other companies and also had brought some through acquisitions. They had acquired Asda, Jet.com, Flipkart, Moosejaw, Bonobos, etc. in their course of growth, Dollar Tree is not one among them. Even though Dollar Tree is a publicly-traded company and they do have many individual and institutional investors, Walmart isn’t one yet.
Companies Walmart do Own
Walmart started with a Ben Franklin store in 1945. It was in 1963 Sam Walton started the first “Walmart discount city store” in Arkansas. After getting incorporated in 1969 as Wal-Mart, Inc. they went public in 1970 and started trading stocks. Later they started investing and buying other companies from 1999 onwards, by buying UK-based “Asda” for US$10 billion. Later in 2010, they acquired a video streaming company “Vudu, Inc.” for $100 million.
In 2013 major stakes in Kenyan supermarket chain “Naivas” were brought and e-commerce website jet.com in 2016. “Moosejaw”, “Bonobos”, and “parcel” were acquired by Walmart in 2017. Next year they brought a 77% controlling stake in the biggest online retailer in India, Flipkart. Lastly, they acquired “Aspectiva” in 2019 and “Zeekit startup” in 2021. But they haven’t brought any stocks of Dollar Tree, as of 2022 May.
What is a Dollar Tree?
Dollar Tree was started in Virginia in 1953 as a “ben Franklin variety store” which later become K&K. In 1986 Dough Perry, Macon Brock, and Ray Compton started the first “only $1.00” store. Later they sold K&K and decided to concentrate on only $1.00. It was this business, based on the idea of “Everything’s a dollar”, later became “Dollar Tree”. Later in the course of their growth, they acquired many companies and stores including Dollar Bill$, Inc., 98-cent clearance centers, Only $One, Dollar Express, Dollar Giant Stores, and lastly Family Dollar.
Who owns Dollar Tree?
It was in 1993 Dollar Tree, Inc. sold its part equity interest. Later in 1995 March they went public on the NASDAQ exchange and started trading stocks for $15 a share. 330 stores of Dollar Tree were sold to a private company “Sycamore Partners” in 2015. Currently, Dollar Tree is a publicly-traded company whose parent company is Dollar Tree, Inc. itself. 53.80% of their stocks are owned by mutual fund holders and 5.14% holds by individual stakeholders.
Major Dollar Tree shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc. which owns 10.25% of the shares. Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. Also owns a share of 8.53%. Another 5.86% of stocks are owned by the Mantle Ridge LP, which was brought in 2022. Another major institutional shareholder of Dollar Tree is the BlackRock Fund advisor. And Walmart, Inc. is not there in the list of shareholders.
What makes each different?
Even though both Walmart and Dollar Tree are retail stores, chances of considering them as similar or assuming one owns the another are quite normal. But there are many significant differences between these companies including their target audiences.
Basically dollar tree is a multi-price point chain of discount variety stores where a huge discounted price is available. While Walmart is a retail corporation chain that operates hypermarkets, department stores, grocery stores, etc. Retail stores like Walmart and target are considered one-stop for weekly purchases, and dollar stores are considered fill-in shopping stores for the weekday necessity. Dollar stores would be there on each corner, even in small spaces like mini-malls, strip malls, shopping centers, etc. But mostly Walmart owns their plot since they need much more space for their warehouse-style stores. Most dollar stores are 8000 – 12000 sq. ft. whereas Walmart stores would be an average of 180000 sqft. In Dollar tree, you can find a variety of products but may not have a variety of options for each product. But Walmart offers a lot of options for each product. Dollar tree sells products of national brands or generic label goods, while Walmart includes major brand products and even has some private-label goods also. For huge discounts on products dollar stores mostly sell less quantity or quality products, mostly in smaller portions. But in Walmart you can find products of good quality and quantity, but for a normal price.
Conclusion
Both Walmart and Dollar Tree are retail stores selling general merchandise yet are entirely different when it comes to price, product, location, store, and so on. Even though Walmart, Inc. is much bigger than Dollar Tree, Inc., it is not owned by Walmart. While Walmart under the leadership of the Walton family had acquired a lot of companies, they haven’t invested in Dollar Tree yet. And Dollar Tree is currently a publicly-traded company with a large part of its shares owned by institutional investors such as The Vanguard Group, Inc., Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., etc.
Is Walmart a competitor of Dollar Tree? If not who are the competitors?
Both Walmart and Dollar Tree are structurally different from each other. But the differentiating line between both is narrowing due to the competition. Yet we can’t consider them as competitors. The major competitors of Dollar Tree are Dollar General and Five below Inc.
Who owns Walmart, Inc. ?
50.1%, a major part of the share, is owned by the Walton family, the family of the founder itself. This comprises both the institutional shares of the Walton family trust and individual shares of the family members. 35% of the shares are owned by Walton Enterprises LLC and 15% are owned by Walton Family Holdings Trust. S. Robson Walton is the major individual stakeholder in the company with his 0.09% of shares. Another 4.9% of shares are owned by The Vanguard Group, Inc.
