The first time the father-son team of Nick and Nicholas Sovell went to Bentonville, Ark., they were part of a select group of entrepreneurs and small-business owners hoping to land deals with Walmart.
The men, whose Savage-based company manufactures a special absorbent and waterproof mat, had been invited to participate in the retail behemoth’s first pitchfest for American-made products, known as Open Call, in 2014.
“We drove down because we had so many samples to sell,” said son Nicholas Sovell, executive vice president of RPM Inc. “We got down there and we were running back and forth between rooms with these big ugly suitcases.”