Walmart taps Berkley as exclusive packaging vendor for 2024 Annual Event

Walmart Inc. has chosen a new packaging vendor to manage its massive Annual Event in 2024 — Berkley.

Annual Event is the term describing what is undoubtedly the retail giant’s most important time of the year. It has evolved from “Black Friday” to encompass nearly the entire month of November to kick off the in-store holiday shopping season.

“Walmart releases a very specific guide for suppliers that participate and sell their products during that time of the year,” co-founder and CEO Eric Berkley said. He explained that Berkley will oversee project tracking and program auditing from start to finish.

“Approval from Berkley is mandatory for every stage of the process before [suppliers] produce or ship any displays,” said Jarrett Dunn, senior vice president at Berkley. “We’re looking forward to working with Annual Event suppliers and Walmart for successful execution this year.”

To support the work, Berkley said the company will add several new jobs in Northwest Arkansas. Based in Los Angeles, Berkley first opened a Northwest Arkansas office in 2016. Approximately half of its 58 employees work in the region.

Berkley owns a 78,000-square-foot Lowell warehouse at 316 Commercial Ave., and leases about 9,900 square feet of design space inside a 41,510-square-foot building at 1001 S. 52nd St. in Rogers.

“We are looking at some nice expansion in 2024,” Dunn said. “We are talking to our landlord about taking more space in the Rogers building to expand our design center. We are also looking for additional warehouse and co-packing space in the region and adding a St Louis design center in the first quarter of this year.”