Walmart International's Finance Chief Cathy Smith Quits

Walmart Stores international finance chief, Cathy Smith, will leave the company at the end of the month to take a "leadership position" at another firm.

Walmart US chief financial officer Brett Biggs will replace Smith at Walmart International, the company said in a statement.

Biggs is also executive vice president for Walmart US and was previously senior vice president of operations for the company's retail warehouse arm, Sam's Club.

Smith also heads the international division's strategy team. Prior to joining Wal-Mart in 2010, Smith had served as the executive vice president and chief financial officer at GameStop.

Walmart CFO Charles Holley said in a statement that Smith played an "integral role...during a time of significant transformation [of the international division]."

The international division employs some 800,000 people. It operates over 6,100 stores and manages several publicly traded firms.

The division raked in $135bn (£82bn, €99b) in sales last year.

Cambodia Woes

Retailing giant Walmart, and Nike, were slammed by rights groups for failing to condemn the use of deadly force by Cambodian police against striking garment workers at some of their suppliers.

Earlier in the month, human rights activists in Cambodia said they were bitterly disappointed by the lack of action from multi-national companies following the killing of at least five workers, who were shot dead by police in Phnom Penh while demonstrating for better wages.

Bumper Sales at Asda

British retailer Asda said earlier in January that it logged bumper sales during the Christmas period after both store and online purchases boosted its performance.

The British arm of US grocer Walmart cited its unwavering strategy for record sales during Christmas.

Asda racked up a record 4.8 million customers on 23 December through its 573 UK stores and two days prior to this it had its biggest ever online Christmas exceeding £5m.

It added that 28% of grocery home shopping sales were ordered through its smartphone app in December while mobile app sales were up over 200% on last year.