Press Releases

Kimberly-Clark RFID Lab is One of Two in North America to Receive Accreditation as a Global Performance Test Center

DALLAS, September 16, 2005 – Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE:KMB) today announced the company's dedicated RFID research lab has been awarded the first Global Performance Test Center Accreditation Marks by EPCglobal Inc. This award recognizes K-C's leadership role in the testing of RFID technology with the electronic product codes (EPC) used in supply chains. Kimberly-Clark's RFID research lab is one of only two facilities in North America to receive the EPCglobal accreditation.

EPCglobal Inc., the not-for-profit organization entrusted with driving the commercial adoption of EPC and RFID technology, awarded Kimberly-Clark the accreditation marks this week during the general session of the 2005 EPCglobal Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center. The accreditation indicates that Kimberly-Clark's RFID research lab is at the forefront when it comes to using a standard set of performance test profiles to simulate real-world conditions in testing the readability of end-user products that are tagged with RFID-enabled EPCs.

"Today's announcement underscores Kimberly-Clark's leadership position in the adoption and implementation of RFID technology," said Cheryl Perkins, Kimberly-Clark's Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer. "K-C has long been an RFID pioneer – leveraging the technology in an effort to reduce our supply chain costs, increase efficiencies in our operations, and ensure we deliver the right product to the right customer at the right time.

"Receiving EPCglobal's accreditation also recognizes K-C's efforts to drive greater value for our retail customers by using this promising technology to address their critical business issues such as out-of-stocks and inefficiencies in the global supply chain."

The accreditation also certifies that Kimberly-Clark's RFID lab capabilities, including the RFID tags, readers, printers, and applicators used in the facility, have been rigorously tested against EPCglobal standards, and have demonstrated the ability to present retail customers winning, innovative and cost-effective EPC and RFID solutions for the global supply chain.

"As we continue to explore the potential of RFID technology, we believe it will enable Kimberly-Clark to become an 'indispensable partner' with our retail customers, allowing us to be more responsive to their needs and to provide them with accurate and up-to-the-minute EPC information to jointly enhance supply chain applications," concluded Perkins.

Joining Kimberly-Clark as the only other North American facility to receive accreditation from EPCglobal is the University of Arkansas' RFID Research Center at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, in Fayetteville.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 150 countries. Every day, 1.3 billion people – nearly a quarter of the world's population – trust K-C brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds the No. 1 or No. 2 share position in more than 80 countries. To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the company's 133-year history of innovation visit: www.kimberly-clark.com.

About EPCglobal Inc

EPCglobal Inc., a subsidiary of GS1, is a not-for-profit organization entrusted by industry to establish and support the EPCglobal Network&#8482 as the global standard for real-time, automatic identification of information in the supply chain of any company, anywhere in the world.

The EPCglobal Network combines radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, existing communications network infrastructure, and the Electronic Product Code (a number of uniquely identifying an item) to enable accurate, cost-efficient visibility of information in the supply chain. The end result helps organizations be more efficient, flexible, and responsive to customer needs. For more information about EPCglobal visit: www.epcglobalinc.org.

Joey Mooring
972-281-1443
[email protected]

Dave Dickson
972-281-1481
[email protected]