Kimberly-Clark improves Pull-Ups training pants.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- April 11, 1996--Kimberly-Clark Corporation today announced it will soon introduce improved Huggies Pull-Ups disposable training pants in the U.S. and abroad with better leakage protection, a thinner design and enhanced gender-specific graphics.

The company said the product improvements will help support Kimberly-Clark's leadership in the training and youth pants category worldwide.

Kimberly-Clark will begin shipping the improved Pull-Ups training pants this month to retailers in the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland. Shipments to Canada will begin in May and, by year-end, the product will be available in the more than 40 countries in which it is sold. With 70 percent of the $570 million North American training and youth pants market, Kimberly-Clark is the category leader in the U.S. and Canada.

"Since Kimberly-Clark invented disposable training pants in 1989, we have increased overall category sales by continually introducing product improvements that meet children's needs," said W. Dudley Lehman, Group President of the Infant and Child Care Sectors. "These improved Pull-Ups training pants look and feel more like underwear and provide the absorbency of a diaper."

Kimberly-Clark has improved the product by adding more superabsorbent material and a new "surge" layer that draws liquid into the absorbent core faster. Produced with less fluff, the improved training pants will be 20 percent thinner. And to help toddlers feel like "big kids," Pull-Ups training pants will feature enhanced gender-specific graphics, such as ruffles on the girls and a fly front on the boys, and more age-appropriate character illustrations.

The company also recently increased package counts in the U.S. without raising prices. "The addition of 15 percent more training pants per package makes the Pull-Ups brand an even better value," Mr. Lehman said. "We believe this will prompt more consumers to choose disposable training pants over alternative toilet training products."

Kimberly-Clark created Pull-Ups disposable training pants to help ease the transition from diapers to underwear for the more than four million children in the U.S. and Canada who begin toilet training each year. The pants have stretchy side panels so that children can pull them up and down themselves, and they also have convenient tear-away sides that allow easy removal in case of accidents.

With annual sales of almost $14 billion, Kimberly-Clark Corporation is a leading global manufacturer of personal care, consumer tissue and away-from-home products. The company's worldwide brands include Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Depend, Kleenex, Scott, Scottex, Andrex, Sopalin, Popee, Kimwipes and WypAll. Kimberly-Clark also is a major producer of professional health care products, newsprint and premium business, correspondence and technical papers. A Fortune 100 company, Kimberly-Clark has manufacturing operations in 33 countries and sells its products in more than 150 countries.

CONTACT: Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Angie McCoy, 214/281-1486 (Media)

Mike Masseth, 214/281-1478 (Investor Relations)