A national effort by Bentonville, Ark.-based megaretailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) to sell more American-made products appears to be having an impact in Missouri. The local focus comes at a time when several locally produced food products are gaining traction with area grocery shoppers.
Anne Hatfield, a regional spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores, said in fiscal 2014 Wal-Mart spent $7.4 billion with product suppliers in Missouri as part of its national effort to buy American and support U.S. jobs.
“We love having locally based products. We are always working to expand the amount of locally grown and locally sourced foods, for example,” Hatfield said of efforts that supported 50,000 Missouri jobs. “We’re investing $250 billion nationwide – investing in products, investing in systems to really jump-start the manufacturing industry.”
Last year, the retailer unveiled its initiative to increase the amount of American-made products it buys by $50 billion over 10 years.
One longtime area supplier to Wal-Mart and others is Marshfield-based MBDR Foods.
Founder Rick Pierce sells MBDR’s Hopsing brand sauces into 60 Wal-Mart stores, and 160 grocery locations in southwest Missouri.
The company, which serves as a distributor for other Missouri brands on the side, has sold its Hopsing sauces for 23 years. The company produces its original stir-fry sauce and cashew chicken powder, as well as sweet-and-sour, oyster and general chicken sauces.
“Through the years, we’ve done direct delivery to the grocery stores, and we’ve picked up many Missouri products, like the Taste of the Hill products out of St. Louis,” Pierce said. “We’re the ones who brought that to southwest Missouri.”
He said the company is on pace to generate $750,000 in revenue this year, and around 20 percent of its revenue comes from distributing products for others. He said Wal-Mart is interested in expanding the Hopsing product line across Missouri and possibly across state lines.
“We go up against Kikkoman and La Choy,” Pierce said, adding Wal-Mart buyers have told him Hopsing sells more locally than those national competitors.
Southwest Missouri manufacturers are always anxious to get on store shelves, said Dan Shultz, a buyer with Price Cutter.
“Anytime there is an opportunity to do something local, that kind of piques everybody’s interest,” Shultz said, pointing to Leong’s cashew chicken sauce, James Clary’s Gourmet Souffle and Mexican Villa’s enchilada sauces. “We get requests all the time to carry local products in our stores.”
Shultz said a key for local manufacturers is to get a plan in place for distribution. Ott Food Products LLC’s salad dressings, which are produced in Carthage, are distributed through Associated Wholesale Grocers, for example.
“I personally get a phone call every couple of weeks from somebody who has a homemade salsa or a barbecue sauce inquiring about how to get into our stores. The biggest challenge for all of them is distribution,” Shultz said.
For Price Cutter, the process is largely the same. Manufacturers must show proper tax forms and proof of insurance. Then, negotiations begin for product volumes and store placement.
Products often start in stores near the manufacturing base, Shultz said. For example, Preacher Boy’s Secret Sauce, a barbecue sauce produced in Lebanon, is only sold in Price Cutter’s Lebanon, Conway and Waynesville locations.
“If it does well, and we want to expand it or do a promotion and have a display of it, that’d be our decision,” Shultz said.
Float Trip Pickles started out in Springfield stores about two years ago and expanded to all 46 Price Cutter locations in about six months, Shultz said. There is room to grow, he said, noting locally made products represent less than 5 percent of all sales.
MBDR Foods delivers directly to Price Cutter, as well as Wal-Mart stores – until recently. He now sends product to McLane Co. Inc.’s distribution center in Republic.
“We delivered Hopsing to Wal-Mart directly for 22 years and just in the last two months, we delivered into McLane with Hopsing,” Pierce said, noting the change was a directive from Wal-Mart representatives. “We still deliver directly to Price Cutters and Hy-Vee – all the ones except Wal-Mart.”
Tom Sicola, a spokesman for Texas-based distributor McLane Co., said the change for MBDR was an individual choice by Wal-Mart. He said Wal-Mart buys a large number of items direct from manufacturers, and it decides which ones McLane would supply.
McLane delivers to Wal-Mart stores across the country several times per week, Sicola said, from all 21 of its distribution centers.
For area manufacturers interested in getting a presence on local store shelves, he said it is best to start with an individual grocery or retail chain.
“They will let the manufacturer know who their distributor is,” Sicola said by email.[[In-content Ad]]
