HispanicBusiness

John C. Lopez, founder of Lopez Foods, Inc. (LFI), the primary meat producer for companies such as McDonald's and Wal-Mart, is retiring, and the company he started 18 years ago is moving forward.

The Oklahoma City-based company -- which is the 7th largest Hispanic-owned business in the United States -- announced today that longtime CEO Ed Sanchez will take on Lopez's role as chairman of the privately owned company's board of directors.

Under Lopez's leadership, the company expanded rapidly, with a banner year occurring in 2001, when it grew 97 percent.

"My greatest accomplishment as the leader of the Lopez Foods team has been the successful training, growth and productivity of each and every associate -- from our hourly to executive staff," Lopez said.
"We entered this journey with every intention of turning this company into a highly productive and efficiently run organization, with the programs, improvements and personnel additions we have made, we feel we have gone above and beyond our goal. We are extremely proud of being the nation's largest Hispanic owned meat manufacturing company and of the team that has built our sterling reputation in such a short amount of time."

John C. Lopez helped turn Lopez Foods Inc. into the 13th largest U.S. Hispanic-owned business in gross sales.

Lopez will continue to provide his counsel as Chairman Emeritus of the company's board of directors.

Speaking to HispanicBusiness.com, CEO and new board chairman Ed Sanchez said the company's revenues were flat in 2009, holding steady from the year before at around $400 million.

"Being flat today is an enviable position," Sanchez said. "Our two largest customers are McDonald's and Wal-Mart. Those companies have done well in these recessionary times. Costco is also a major customer, and they've done well as well. So we've held our own."

Although Lopez, who is in his early 70s, is moving on, his family will continue to have a hand in the business. His two sons, John and Dave Lopez, have been at the company for over a decade, and will continue their work for Lopez Foods in management, Sanchez said. John was recently elected to the company's board of directors.

Lopez Foods' 185,000 square foot meat processing facility is situated on a 32-acre site in western Oklahoma City. The company produces all-beef hamburger patties, pork sausage patties, and Canadian-style bacon for the McDonald's restaurant chain and supplies a variety of other meat products to a variety of customers, including Applebee's, Burger King, Costco, Kroger's, Sam's Club, Sonic, Target and Wal-Mart Stores.

The company also has a plant in Caryville, Tennessee.

All told, Lopez Foods employs about 750 people. Sanchez said the company has not had to resort to layoffs during the recession.

Lopez Foods Origins

Both Lopez and Sanchez began their careers with McDonald's.

Lopez ran a successful McDonald's restaurant in Los Angeles. Sanchez spent 27 years with McDonald's most recently as the fast-food chain's president of Latin America and Canada.

He came to Lopez Foods six years ago.

"I've been with the company six years, and look forward to being here much longer than that," Sanchez, 51, told HispanicBusiness.com. "At some point in time this will be my last job, I hope."

Lopez Foods President and CEO Ed Sanchez credits John C. Lopez's leaderhip for growing the company into a successful enterprise.

Sanchez said the company has been making technological changes to keep pace with improving safety standards and efficiency techniques.

For instance, a couple years ago the company stopped the practice of packing its sausage products by hand.

"All the products -- the fully cooked and the partially cooked -- get packed by machine now," he said. The new method, he said, is less labor intensive, and more sanitary.

Beef patties are still packed by hand, but he said that could change in the future, when the right technology becomes available.

Next Steps

As for Lopez, he and his wife Pat are also co-founders of Sue�os, LLC, a hotel development company that last month opened its first Cambria Suites Hotel at 4410 SW 19th Street in Oklahoma City. The 134-suite upscale hotel is the first of several planned by the couple.

While Sanchez will keep his CEO title in addition to his new post as board chair, he will pass on his duties as company president to the company's current chief operating officer, Jim English. Those changes, Sanchez said, will occur over the course of the next year.

Sanchez attended Miami-Dade College, and earned his master's in business administration from Sussex College in England. He lives in Oklahoma City.

Lopez said he believes many Hispanics have what it takes to be successful businesspeople.

"We are fortunate to have -- what I believe to be -- the key traits in our DNA that produce successful entrepreneurs: Perseverance, hard work, resiliency and luck," he told HispanicBusiness.com. "Long hours, yes -- refusals, denials, doors shut in your face, yes -- but getting up, brushing yourself off and not giving up pays off, we're proof!"

John C. Lopez (center), Chairman of the Board Emeritus, Lopez Foods, Inc., pictured with sons John P. Lopez (left), Board Member, Lopez Foods, Inc. and Dave Lopez (right), Assistant Vice President, Lopez Foods, Inc.