Walmart 2004 Annual Report Download - page 10

8
Across the country and around the world, Wal-Mart builds
mutually profitable relationships with its Suppliers.
In the stories below, you’ll discover how Wal-Mart helps
local small-town Suppliers develop into strong regional
or national businesses.You’ll also learn how Wal-Mart
helps move established national
Suppliers into the international realm.
Frey Farms Produce Co.
At age 8, Sarah Frey of Wayne County, Ill.,
made her first sale to the produce
manager of a local grocery store. Eleven
years later in 1995, she convinced a
Wal-Mart district manager to start buying
melons from her family farm for a group
of 10 stores.
Today, with hard work and the help
of Wal-Mart, Sarah Frey-Talley and
her four brothers have grown into a
national produce Supplier, selling
nearly 1 million pumpkins a year
and even more watermelons than
that to approximately 400 Wal-Mart stores across
the Midwest.
“I was 19 when we began serious business with
Wal-Mart,”says Frey-Talley. “For Wal-Mart to award
a lofty chunk of business to a company where the
president was a 19-year-old may have seemed ludicrous
to some, but not to Wal-Mart’s buyers.They had
confidence in our abilities regardless of age or gender.
They recognized the value of locally grown produce and
insisted on providing it to their customers.”
Frey-Talley, one of Wal-Mart’s many women-owned
suppliers, says Wal-Mart has provided a base for her
company to build on. “We have challenged ourselves to
go out and acquire other accounts,”she says,“and to
increase our revenue in business interests that don’t
involve produce.”
With headquarters located just northeast of Mt.Vernon,
Ill., Frey Farms Produce Co.employs about 200 people at
three locations during the peak season.
“The Wal-Mart people we have collaborated with over the
course of the years have been remarkable, outstanding
individuals,”says Frey-Talley. “Wal-Mart’s team works very
hard and takes care of its Suppliers very well. I say that
not only from our own experience, but from the way I’ve
observed them treating other Suppliers – even
my competition.”
“Today,” she says,“we’re
enjoying phenomenal
sales, and we are proud to
have the opportunity to
grow alongside the
greatest company
in America.”
Orange Glo
International,®Inc.
In the late 1980s,
Max Appel was
experimenting in his
family’s garage in
Littleton, Colo., trying to
develop an effective but
environmentally friendly
cleaning product, when he
hit upon the formula for
Orange Glo®Wood Cleaner
& Polish.Soon, word of the
product’s amazing results
spread as Appel and his
new company, Orange Glo International, Inc.,
demonstrated and sold Orange Glo at state fairs, home
shows and stores across the United States and Canada.
To follow the success of Orange Glo, this family business
founded by Joel, Max, Elaine, David and Linda Appel
introduced Orange Clean®Multi-Purpose Cleaner and
OxiClean®, which safely harness the natural cleaning
power of orange oil and oxygen.
But by 1999, Orange Glo faced challenges to its plans for
further expansion. The company needed to improve its
logistics and information systems so it could expand
distribution in the United States and move the product
Building Lasting Relationships with Suppliers
“We are proud
to have the
opportunity to
grow alongside the
greatest company
in America.”
Sarah Frey-Talley