COM-PAC PRODUCTS SELECTED BY WALMART!
October 25th, 2023, Carbondale, IL – Com-Pac International, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has been selected by Walmart to supply its newly released Titan Tote™ Slider Big Bags in Walmart’s on-line merchandising website “Marketplace” as well as in Wal-Mart’s actual store locations with a novel holiday print scheme intended for use to store post-holiday decorations and supplies.
Founder and President, Gregory S. Sprehe, said that Com-Pac received an invitation in August to pitch the new line of big storage bags to Walmart merchants at Walmart’s 9th annual Open Call for vendors of products which are Made-in-America. The event was held at Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas on October 24th and 25th where 700 businesses from around the country pitched over 1,000 different products, from over 15,000 product applications which were originally submitted. Only 180 products were selected for immediate in-store sales and Com-Pac’s were among the successful ones.
“It was a shark-tank-like experience where we had 30 minutes to present how our products fill a need, are superior to our competitors and of course priced competitively. There aren’t any other really big bags to store household products that are easy to close and convenient to use. And with Walmart’s emphasis on sustainability, we showed that it takes 18 times the amount of plastic to make a hard-sided tote than to make one of our bags which holds the same volume of contents,” said Mr. Sprehe.
This is the third retail product which Com-Pac has introduced under its own brand. “Emerging from the pandemic, we decided to add a third leg to our marketing channel-strategy to include sales of Com-Pac branded products to direct-to-consumer retailers like Walmart, Target, Costco, etc., as well as on-line ecommerce sites like Amazon, Ebay and Etsy. We have traditionally sold our products pretty much exclusively as a contract manufacturer or to distributors, which made us vulnerable to the ups and downs of their marketing efforts. Adding our new strategy will help us chart our own destiny with innovative products made right here in Carbondale, IL,” Mr. Sprehe continued.
Walmart’s website describes its Open Call effort as follows:
“Open Call is a key part of Walmart’s 10-year, $350 billion investment in items made, grown or assembled in the U.S.,” said John Furner, President and CEO, Walmart U.S. “Investing in U.S. manufacturing is right for our customers and the country’s economy, because it helps deliver our customers the goods they need, when they need them, at affordable prices, while it is expected to support the creation of more than 750,000 jobs.”
Currently Titan Totes Slider Big Bags are available on Amazon at:
Com-Pac International is a private, family company owned by Mr. Sprehe and his bother-in-law, Don Wright, and manufactures flexible packaging products for the medical and laboratory specimen handling industries and markets them under several Com-Pac brand names as well as for private label customers. Additionally, Com-Pac manufactures private label packaging products for fresh-cut produce, frozen foods, stand-up pouch closures and food storage bags. Com-Pac will celebrate 34 years of business this coming November employs nearly 250 workers in Carbondale’s industrial park.
