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Candle-lite is also a “Made in America” success story, with 825 employees at Candle-
lite’s facilities in a Cincinnati suburb. The company distributes its product from a
distribution center in Indiana, and gets glass for its candle fixtures from a sister
company in Oklahoma. Ninety percent of the raw materials used to make Candle-lite
candles are made in the USA.
Located Northeast of Mt. Vernon, IL, Frey Farms Produce Co. employs around 200
people during peak season. At age 8, Sarah Frey sold her first melons to a produce
manager at a local grocery store. A lot of hard work and eleven years later, Sara made
her first melon sale to a Wal-Mart hometown store. The rest, as they say, is history.
In 1979, Mrs. Elizabeth Frey-Reitz started a summer delivery route out of the back of
her pickup truck. She and her children worked on the farm and sold homegrown
melons to local merchants. In 1994, her daughter, Sarah Frey decided to knock on
Wal-Mart’s door and now, in 2004 Sarah Frey supplies nearly 375 Wal-Mart stores
with watermelons, cantaloupes, pumpkins, variety melons and fall ornamentals.
“Wal-Mart recognized the value of locally grown produce and insisted on consistently
providing it to their customers,” says Frey. “I was 19 when we began serious business
with Wal-Mart. For them to award such a lofty chunk of their business to a company
where the president was a 19-year-old woman may have seemed ludicrous to some,
but not to the Wal-Mart buyers. They had confidence in our abilities regardless of age
or gender,” Frey adds.
Soon after receiving the contract with Wal-Mart, Sarah’s brother Ted, John, Harley,
and Leonard returned home from college to join their sister in expanding the family
business. And it’s paid off, during the past several years, Frey Farms Produce Co. has
continued to grow and expand reporting consistent sales increases.
Last year, Frey now 27, and her company grew around 600,000 jack-o-lanterns on
1,000 acres of land to go to Wal-Mart stores in time for Halloween. “After
watermelons, and cantaloupes, the last thing we do was pumpkins,” notes Frey. The
plants are started in greenhouses and transplanted in June to the fields for harvest in
September.
“Today, we’re enjoying phenomenal sales, and we are proud to have been given the
opportunity to grow alongside the greatest company in America,” declares Frey.
Molor Products
Oswego, Illinois | Wal-Mart supplier since 1982
Dog and Cat Fountain automatic pet watering bowls | Christmas tree watering system
Today, Molor Products is housed in a 51,000 square foot facility in Oswego, IL and
its partnership with Wal-Mart continues. The company has designed automatic pet
water bowls, the Food ‘n’ Fountain for dogs and the Mini Food ‘n’ Fountain for cats,
which refill automatically when they need to, making pet care easy for owners who
may be away for extended periods of time. Also in time for the upcoming holiday
season, stores will also sell Molor’s Tree Fountain, a unique automatic water
dispenser for holiday trees that simplifies the maintenance necessary to keep trees
healthy throughout the season.
“Wal-Mart played a big part in attaining my life’s goals. They appreciate the
simplicity of our products and that we are always ten steps ahead of our competition.”
Molor products are shipped to Wal-Mart stores halfway around the world. Now,
Lorenzana says, “We can tell the whole world we export to China.”
Max and his wife, Elaine, made the product in their garage and shopped it around at
state fairs and home shows. Before long, they found themselves with a hot product
that was gaining customers through word of mouth.
Wal-Mart merchandise teams worked with Orange Glo to develop its infrastructure to
accommodate growth. By 2001, Orange Glo had been named Wal-Mart’s household
and paper goods Supplier of the Quarter. In 2003, it was named one of Wal-Mart’s
Global
Sourcing Suppliers of the Year.
Today, Orange Glo and its family of products, including OxiClean and Orange Clean
Multi-Purpose Cleaner, are sold in Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations in the United
Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, Germany, Korea, China and Japan.
“Wal-Mart provided the guidance required to efficiently improve our logistics and
information systems,” says Max Appel, whose company now has 186 employees.
“They encouraged us to improve our overall management of our business, including
cost controls, demand forecasting, promotional activities and supply chain
management. Thanks to Wal-Mart, we are an international company.”
Carrots in Supercenters
Peter Rabbit Farms founder Palmer Powell began his produce career during the
depression as a truck driver for the San Francisco Terminal Produce Market. When
retailers started buying direct from the growers he saw his opportunity; knowing that
the Coachella Valley was very fertile he made the move. Palmer’s son, John, joined
the company in 1959 although, at that time, it was called Cardinal Distributing
Company and Peter Rabbit was their brand/label. In 1992, the company name was
changed to Peter Rabbit Farms, and today it still operates from their original location
in the heart of Coachella. The company is also a seasonal grower/shipper of bell
peppers, eggplant, green beans, leaf lettuces and table grapes.
The family-owned produce business needed to grow to remain competitive in the
marketplace. They expanded their operations to offer their carrot crop year around.
Then they picked up the phone and called Wal-Mart. Nearly two years after a “cold
call” to Wal-Mart, Peter Rabbit Farms received their first order from the company in
May, 2001. Currently, the company serves more than 300 Wal-Mart Supercenters,
and, with the March 2004 Grand Opening of Wal-Mart’s first California Supercenter
in La Quinta, Calif., Peter Rabbit Farms now has the opportunity to supply produce
items to both friends and neighbors.
“Working with Wal-Mart these past few years has been great for our organization,”
said Suzanne Powell, Peter Rabbit’s Sr. VP for Marketing & Business Development
and Palmer’s granddaughter. “The true collaborative nature that Wal-Mart has with its
suppliers allows us to get involved in Wal-Mart’s business rather than just filling
orders. Wal-Mart has made us a more efficient company and has even helped our
reputation within our industry,” Powell continued. Peter Rabbit Farms employs 300-
500 people throughout the year. Many have been with the company for more than 15
years and are second and third generation employees. “Wal-Mart’s flexibility to
support local growers where it settles is truly unseen in the grocery industry,” said
Powell. “We are proud of our relationship with Wal-Mart and look forward to even
greater success.”
Peter Rabbit Farms has been owned and operated by the Powell Family for 54 years
and is now in the capable hands of Palmer’s grandchildren: John Jr. – President/CEO,
Steve – VP/COO and Suzanne – SVP Marketing and Business Development.
Ultimate Sports
Denver, Pennsylvania | Wal-Mart supplier since 1986
Shinguards
January 17, 2005
Mr. Lee Scott, President
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc
Corporate Offices
702 S.W. 8 Street
Bentonville, AR 72716
Enclosed is a copy of a letter from your predecessor David Glass regarding our
response to some serious bashing your company received unfairly from Jane Pauley
regarding your “Buy America” program. The negative comments then were false but
that did not deter NBC. Nothing has changed. Wal-Mart, Bill Gates and the New York
Yankees have to be made unpopular because they do their thing so well.
Our entire company, including all 65 employees, owes a great deal of our success and
prosperity to our 19-year relationship with Wal-Mart. In September 1989 our
racquetball manufacturing facility burned to the ground leaving us nearly bankrupt.
Thanks to Herman’s and Wal-Mart and an innovative shinguard design we did not go
under but instead prospered with what has become America’s favorite shinguard.
When anyone asks how we recovered from such a disaster we reply "Thank you Wal-
Mart.”
We have heard all the nasty stories of how Wal-Mart bullies suppliers and leaves them
high and dry when they go offshore but the fact is that we have been treated perfectly
by your company as long as we have followed your very strict and specific
instructions. We have manufactured The Ultimate Shinguard for fifteen years and
supplied it to your company for fourteen years. There is no product so available in the
orient than shinguards but Wal-Mart and fifty or so other American retailers have
elected our product.
Your new public relations offensive is well advised and overdue. Like every other
highly successful organization you have no shortage of detractors. One of them is our
local Lancaster, PA newspaper publisher who cannot be negative enough about Wal-
Mart. This newspaper controls all the local delivery people and as a result my wife
and I are unable to subscribe to the New York Times or the Philadelphia Inquirer.
They won’t allow the local distributors to carry them! Yet they find fault in your
competitive ways.
Sincerely,
Richard A. McGrath, Ultimate Sports
Right-Gard Corporation
Ultimate Apparel, LLC