Fryar Back Doing What He Knows Best

The ownership of Ozark Mountain Poultry Inc. in Rogers has distinct ties to Twin Rivers Group in Fayetteville. The two companies are now competitors.

Ed Fryar, majority owner and cofounder of OMP, was cofounder and CEO of Twin Rivers. His resignation on March 29, 2000, was due to what he termed a difference of opinion on which road the company should take.

The road OMP travels will be a fast one if Fryar’s plan goes as intended. OMP will specialize in deboning dark meat, a business Twin Rivers parlayed into becoming one of the largest private companies in Northwest Arkansas with $75.5 million in 2000 revenue.

Matt Duffy, who replaced Fryar as CEO at Twin Rivers, would not release current figures, but in 1998 the firm processed 85 million pounds of poultry.

In an industry that produced 15 billion pounds of dark meat last year, Fryar said there is more than enough to go around for OMP, Twin Rivers and others.

“There are five or six commercial-size deboners,” Fryar said. “Twin Rivers is the only other one in Northwest Arkansas. But it’s a big market. I don’t need that much and [Twin Rivers] doesn’t need that much.”

Fryar is a former commodity analyst for the USDA and professor of Agriculture Economics at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, specializing in poultry marketing. His partners at OMP include Howard Otwell, a former Twin Rivers employee who also founded Atlantic and Pacific Trading LLC in 1998, and Scott and Tanya Hammock. Scott Hammock is a former plant manager for Twin Rivers. Another partner at OMP is a silent one.

Fryar said he spent his first three months away from work “getting reacquainted with my kids.”

“I have a better relationship with them today than ever before,” Fryar said. “And I had plenty of honey-do projects around the house to keep me busy.

“I considered several things, one being getting into the real estate market. Another was starting a sporting goods store. The best job I ever had was in high school at a sporting goods store. I had all the hunting and fishing equipment a guy could ask for. But there were some new sporting goods stores going in, and as much as I enjoyed sporting goods I really didn’t know the business. I know the chicken business.”