Applications for Walmart’s Open Call sourcing event are being accepted.
“As Walmart nears ten years of offering Open Call opportunities, this year’s application period is particularly noteworthy,” stated Jason Fremstad, senior vice president of supplier development at Walmart. “Open Call started back in 2014, when Walmart first welcomed over 500 companies hoping to sell their American-made goods to millions of Walmart shoppers.
Since then, Open Call has expanded its chances, and last year saw over 1,100 small and medium-sized enterprises participate, making Open Call 2022 Walmart’s largest to date. The biggest sourcing event for Walmart and Sam’s Club nowadays is called Open Call.
RangeMe, a platform that links suppliers and retailers for product procurement and discovery, is a partner of Walmart in organising its Open Call. Applications are being accepted by the company through August.18 at open-call-2023.engage.walmart-jump.com. During the two-day event on October 24–25, finalists will have access to mentoring sessions, instructional programmes, and one-on-one pitch meetings with Walmart and Sam’s Club merchants.
Co-founders of Sweety Ice Cream, Tiffany Yang and Stacey Lee, claimed that taking part in Walmart’s Open Call “completely transformed our business.” The company, situated in Monterey Park, California, produces Japanese-style mochi ice cream in a variety of flavours, such as matcha green tea, ube purple yam, azuki red bean, and classic chocolate, all with a “Golden State twist.”
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“We were in mostly independent, small, ethnic grocery stores before Open Call, and now we are in over 2,000 Walmart stores nationwide,” Ms. Lee stated. It has made it possible for us to expand our company in ways we never could have predicted. We’ve been able to increase our workforce and make investments in extra production capacity. To meet all of our demand, we are now considering growing and adding a new branch.
Walmart started its Lead with Local snack programme earlier this year as part of its continued efforts to support American manufacturers. According to Mr. Fremstad, the programme has been extended to more than 130 locations nationwide.
“With this initiative, Walmart connects customers to products from businesses in their hometowns by prominently selling locally made snacks in stores,” the spokesperson stated.