Upper cut
Lopez Foods looks to beef up profits, take bite into international breakfasts
Lopez Foods looks to beef up profits, take bite into international breakfasts

By Debbie Blossom

Published: April 9, 2008

When it comes to beefing up business, Ed Sanchez knows where to turn to boost the bottom line at the Oklahoma-based meat-processing company he heads.

In two months, the president and chief executive of Lopez Foods will head to Russia as the company looks to expand some of its product line further into an international market that already includes Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and the Caribbean islands.

And, while about half of Lopez's business is generated through its relationship with McDonald's Corp., the fast-food giant's European locations don't serve a breakfast menu.

But pork, Sanchez said, is part of Lopez's future strategy.

"Breakfast sausage is where the growth is,” he said.

Since Sanchez arrived in Oklahoma City in 2004, the company that began as Wilson Foods in 1968 and then renamed after being purchased by John Lopez in 1992 has grown into a three-facility operation expected to bring in $500 million this year.

Sanchez spent 27 years with McDonald's, and half of that career was spent planning, expanding and overseeing the company's Canadian and Latin American operations. "That's my comfort zone, and I saw the opportunity there,” he said.

Lopez Foods produces beef, pork and Canadian bacon patties for grocery retailers and restaurants. They include Wal-Mart Stores, Albertsons, B.J. Wholesale Club, Sonic Corp., Target, Tyson, Kroger and Applebee's.

In Oklahoma City, the plant dedicates eight lines to beef processing just for McDonald's. Sanchez said two production lines are for fully cooked sausage patties, four lines for partially cooked sausage patties, beef and pork and one Canadian-styled bacon production line.

A plant in Tennessee produces fully cooked sausage patties, hamburgers and chicken products. The Nebraska facility — a joint venture with Tyson Foods — makes several products including frozen beef and pork patties.

The production adds up to a lot of frozen beef and pork, but America's burgeoning population and the number of restaurants and retail outlets opening every year have pushed up the demand for the kind of meat products Lopez produces, Sanchez said.

In the past four years, the company has added 100 employees and increased its payroll by 25 percent, bumping total employment in Oklahoma City up to 500.

Plant expansions on the 33-acre site north of Interstate 40 off Morgan Road in 2001 and 2006 have increased space at the facility to 200,000 square feet.

Yet Sanchez said Lopez needs a bit more room to house its quality assurance and information technology departments and a safe room for computer servers that control the equipment at all three plants.

The company either will add space on the north side of the facility or, in a more price-effective option, lease between 5,000 and 6,000 square feet nearby, he said.

Lopez Foods has ranked as the largest Hispanic-owned meat processor in the country for the past several years. As of last year, it was also listed as the 10th-largest Hispanic-owned company in the United States and the ninth-largest U.S. pork producer.

Yet the company with the Hispanic name doesn't make any Hispanic products. Instead, Lopez is about the all-American burger, Sanchez said.

"We're a well-kept secret in Oklahoma City.”

Comments