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Wal-Mart and Lopez Foods to market Country Cousins pre-cooked, pork sausage patties.

Bentonville, AR (October 2, 1998) – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced today the selection of Oklahoma City based Lopez Foods, Inc. to produce a package of 18-count, pre-cooked, frozen, pork sausage patties for sale in its Wal-Mart Stores nationwide. The product will be sold under the name of Country Cousins and sold exclusively by Wal-Mart Stores in the U.S.

Lopez Foods, Inc. is ranked among the largest, Hispanic-owned, manufacturing companies in the nation. The company employs over 300 associates, who operate the plant 24-hours a day, making it one of Oklahoma City's major employers and sales leaders. The company is headed by John C. Lopez, a native of Glendale, Arizona. The new relationship with Lopez Foods – along with recent appointments of Roland Hernandez (Los Angeles, CA) and Jose Villarreal (San Antonio, TX) to its Board of Directors – is reflective of Wal-Mart's commitment to grow Hispanic participation at all levels of the company's operations.

"We are proud of our business relationship with Lopez Foods and the quality products we will be able to provide to our customers," stated Ken Parnell, Wal-Mart's Vice President of Purchasing. "This relationship with Lopez Foods underscores Wal-Mart's commitment to expand our Hispanic vendor base and providing our customers with the highest quality products possible, at an every day low price."

"The establishment of a vendor relationship with the world's largest retailer, in addition to already providing our quality products to McDonald's – the world's largest restaurant chain, is a tremendous achievement and one which is not taken lightly by anyone at Lopez Foods," stated Lopez. "This is definitely a momentous event in our company's brief history," he added.

Lopez began his association with McDonald's, as a Los Angeles restaurant operator in 1978. In 1992, he assumed control of the 125,000 square feet, meat processing plant on a 12-acre site in Oklahoma City. The "state-of-the-art" plant manufactures frozen, all-beef patties, pre-cooked breakfast sausage patties and sliced, Canadian-style bacon for McDonald's restaurants and supplies its distribution centers throughout the United States.

Wal-Mart plans to continue its expansion, as well as that of its SAM'S Club operations – both in Mexico and in major U.S. metropolitan areas where Hispanics are expected to continue population growth and consumption trends. By the year 2010, Hispanics are expected to reach some 40 million, with a purchasing power estimated to be $1 trillion, and will become the largest ethnic group in the U.S.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates 2,359 Wal-Mart stores and 443 SAM'S Clubs in the U.S. and employs more than 720,000 associates throughout the nation and is the nation's largest employer of Hispanics, with over 50,000. Internationally, the company operates units in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Puerto Rico and China. Its securities are listed on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges.

Wal-Mart teams with Lopez Foods to create Country Cousins.

Don Sodequist (left), Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and John C. Lopez, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Lopez Foods, Inc. announced the initial negotiations between their two companies during the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility's (HACR) 1998 Symposium on Corporate Responsibility in Miami, FL. Wal-Mart has entered into a vendor agreement with Lopez Foods of Oklahoma City, OK, to produce a pre-cooked, frozen, pork sausage patty product. The 18-count package will be sold by the world's largest retailer, under the name Country Cousins.

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