Walmart hosting open call for products from Hawaii

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / 2014

Walmart’s Open Call event will welcome local manufacturers for an opportunity to sell their products at different stores and online. A Walmart employee adds pricing to a display of local snacks at Walmart in downtown Honolulu.

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Hawaii manufacturers interested in putting their products on Walmart shelves will have an opportunity to make direct deals with buyers from the world’s largest retailer as part of a national event this summer.

Walmart announced Thursday that it will host producers of U.S.-made merchandise at its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters June 28 at the event dubbed Open Call, which is now in its third year.

At the event, manufacturers meet with Walmart buyers and can make supply deals on the spot. The company said more than 500 manufacturers turned out for the first event in 2014, and an estimated 800 were invited last year.

Last year one Hawaii company, Maui-based Kolani Distillers LLC, struck a deal through Open Call to put its Old Lahaina Rum into all 10 Hawaii Walmart stores starting in June when Walmart resets its liquor shelf lineup.

Paul Case, the rum company’s owner, said he was blown away by the retailer’s headquarters and the opportunity to learn how to do business with Walmart.

“It was quite the thing,” he said. “I was amazed.”

Then Walmart’s head liquor buyer told Case they had a deal. “I was in shock,” he recalled, “absolute shock. You could have knocked me over with a feather.”

Walmart said the size of a manufacturing company doesn’t matter much, and that supply agreements can be made for a few stores or for thousands of stores, including Sam’s Clubs and Walmart.com. Having an unbeatable price, however, is key.

“From food to toys to apparel, and companies large and small from coast to coast, we want to make a deal with you for your U.S.-made products,” Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart vice president of U.S. sourcing and manufacturing, said in a statement.

Open Call is one effort Walmart launched to help fulfill a goal set in 2013 to buy an additional $250 billion of products that support American jobs over 10 years.

“We are opening our doors and making our buyers available to meet with suppliers with one goal in mind: buy more American products,” Marsiglio said.

The deadline to register is May 27. More information can be found at walmart-jump.com.