WAL-MART TO SUPPLY 2 ASIAN STORES

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores here has signed separate agreements with two Asian retailers to supply private-label products overseas through the export division of Sam's Club. One agreement calls for Wal-Mart to supply apparel and other general merchandise to Ito-Yokado Co., Tokyo, beginning in August. In the other agreement, Wal-Mart entered into a linkup with Yaohan International Group, Hong Kong, that will allow the sale of Wal-Mart products at stores operated by Japanese-owned Yaohan and other operators in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Ito-Yokado owns and operates multistory food and general merchandise stores and 7-Eleven convenience stores in Japan. Under the agreement, the Japanese retailer will provide Wal-Mart with information on its convenience store point-of-sale inventory management system. In a test last year, prior to formalizing the agreement between the two companies, Ito-Yokado purchased 200 million yen ($2 million U.S.) worth of product from Sam's, including T-shirts, jeans, toys, pet food and tableware. Yaohan officials said the company would purchase more than 1 billion yen ($10 million U.S.) worth of Wal-Mart products during the first year of the agreement.