Walmart Hosts Nearly 1,000 Meetings at Manufacturing Summit
by July 20, 2015 12:00 am 163 views
Officials with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said the company hosted nearly 1,000 meetings at its U.S. Manufacturing Summit in Bentonville July 7-8.
The two-day event, split between the company’s headquarters and Bentonville High School, provided an opportunity for existing and potential suppliers to pitch their products and earn the chance to have them sold at Walmart, Walmart.com and Sam’s Club.
Walmart hosted over 550 meetings between buyers and suppliers during the Open Call portion of the event and facilitated nearly 400 meetings with suppliers and economic development representatives from 30 states.
“I think our customers are going to be excited about some of the products we purchased [at the summit],” said Greg Foran, president and CEO of Walmart U.S. “I saw lots of innovation and enthusiasm from buyers. Our goal is to share that same excitement for our customers for growth in communities and job creation.”
The event was an expanded version of last year’s inaugural Open Call, a one-day event that involved 800 meetings and resulted in deals with hundreds of new products.
On July 8, the day after suppliers pitched their products to Walmart buyers, several Walmart executives, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson all took their turns touting American manufacturing during a session at Bentonville High’s Arend Arts Center.
Several local executives attended the summit, including Jim Phillips, chairman and CEO of Springdale-based NanoMech Inc., a global leader in nano-lubricant manufacturing.
Phillips said NanoMech and Walmart are discussing a variety of business opportunities. To that end, he and Ajay Malshe, NanoMech’s founder and chief technical officer, attended both days of the summit to support Walmart’s “Made In the USA” mission.
“When I hear the terms ‘buy American’ and ‘American manufacturing,’ well obviously we are an American manufacturer,” he said. “I thought [the summit] was inspiring. I am a huge believer of American manufacturing. It’s what makes our country great. If we look back 40 years from now and say, ‘America: We did Facebook,’ that means the country is in very deep trouble by then, and probably headed to being a second-world nation.”