Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is looking for Florida entrepreneurs to pitch their made in the USA products to the company’s buyers in a daylong event at Walmart’s global headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas on June 28, 2017. Registration has begun at walmart-jump.com; the deadline is May 18.
“We are excited to once again invite businesses from all 50 states to meet with Walmart buyers who have one goal in mind: to buy more American products for our stores, clubs and Walmart.com,” said Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart’s vice president of U.S. Manufacturing. “By investing in products that support American jobs, we are able to bring new products to our shelves that our customers want and new jobs to our communities. Increasing domestic manufacturing will help create additional jobs in the U.S., and that’s good for American businesses.”
Walmart buyers will be looking to make deals of varying sizes ranging from supplying product to a handful of stores in a local market, to supplying hundreds or thousands of stores as well as Sam’s Club locations and Walmart.com. Here in Florida, Sarasota-based ASO Corp., the second-largest producer of adhesive bandages in the world, partnered with Walmart in 2011, and since that time has created approximately 85 new jobs. And, in 2014, the global company was named Walmart’s supplier of the year in the health and beauty care category.
“Our partnership with Walmart is a major contributor of ASO’s growth in employment and infrastructure for the U.S. and more specifically Sarasota,” said Charles Hart, ASO’s vice president of sales and marketing, at a recent event celebrating the new jobs and relationship with Walmart.
In January 2013, Walmart committed to American renewal by announcing it intends to help boost job creation and U.S. manufacturing through buying an additional $250 billion in products that support American jobs over 10 years. Based on data from Boston Consulting Group, it’s estimated that 1 million new U.S. jobs will be created through this initiative.
About Walmart in Florida
In Florida, we serve customers at 375 retail units and online through Walmart Grocery Pickup, Walmart.com and Jet.com. We are proud to employ 108,321 associates in Florida. Walmart supports local businesses, spending $4.7 billion with Florida suppliers in FYE17, which supported 71,419 supplier jobs. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are active in Florida communities where we live and work and invest in communities through local grants, customer engagement and associate volunteer efforts. In FYE16, we contributed more than $78.2 million in cash and in-kind donations to local nonprofits in Florida and our Florida associates volunteered more than 93,000 hours with local causes. Learn more at the Walmart Today blog, and our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram channels.