Wal-Mart has been ranked the world’s largest retailer for the 10th year running, with Tesco named the third biggest, in a report by Planet Retail.

With sales of US$395.31 billion (£198.19 billion) last year, US retailer Wal-Mart eclipsed Carrefour in second place, which took US$142.23 billion (£71.31 billion) in sales. Tesco recorded sales of US$103.57 billion (£51.93 billion), moving up from last year’s fourth place.

The report found that the top 30 global grocers accounted for sales of US$21.1 trillion (£10.6 trillion) last year, representing 31 per cent of the global market as a whole.

It also revealed that the big grocers wanted to lessen their dependence on their saturated home markets by going overseas.

Planet Retail’s grocery research manager Natalie Berg noted that Tesco will aim to generate half its revenue from international markets in the next 10 years, mainly the US, China and Southeast Asia, while 80 per cent of Wal-Mart International’s expansion will take place in Canada, Mexico and China.

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