Kimberly-Clark (KMB)

Walmart has a large and expanding share of KMB's overall sales. KMB cannot pull their products from Walmart now, and their dependency on walmart sales is just going to get worse. Walmart is absolutely brutal on its suppliers in terms of pricing. Over the long run, wal mart will materially shrink KMB's margins and there's nothing KMB can do about it.

Rising oil prices and raw material costs will further reduce already low profit margins on most of Kimberly-Clark's products or will drive up prices which would reduce sales. Between 2004 and 2005, operating profit declined by nearly 8% for K-C, and this trend will likely continue as Template:OPEC continues to keep gas prices high and US refineries continue to experiene major problems.

Besides the automated toilet paper dispenser, which will likely not come out for a several years (and, face it, it's a toilet paper dispenser), Kimberly-Clark has not had any major breakthroughs in new designs for several years. Despite heavy R&D research, nothing new has come out, and so on top of its other losses, Kimberly-Clark must also invest more in research. Profits will go even lower, and a new development is likely years away.

New, cheaper competitors are stealing Kimberly-Clark's market share, and will continue doing so. While having to compete with lower prices, Kimberly-Clark must also spend large amounts on marketing budgets, and this combined squeeze will reduce profits even more. Kimberly-Clark really cannot compete in today's market and will likely lose out.