Best & Worst 2013

Best Duck Hunt

Rogers-based headwear and apparel company Infinity Product Group inked a three-year licensing agreement with Duck Commander, the Louisiana maker of duck calls and decoys made famous by the wildly popular TV show “Duck Dynasty” on A&E Networks.

Partnering with Duck Commander and its affiliate, Buck Commander, fueled optimism with IPG, which expected the deal to boost sales for a company that was already experiencing tremendous growth. Said IPG president Doug Keller: “You don’t normally get an opportunity to grow like we are growing. So we’re going to put the full-court press on.”

 

Best Shopping List

Harps Food Stores Inc. had a great year. The Springdale grocer opened five locations in 2013, in West Fork, Elkins, Bentonville and two in Hot Springs. The grocery chain has plans to open five locations a year for the next five years. Not bad for a company that competes with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer.

Harps, which is employee-owned, has locations in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. For fiscal 2013, the company reported $640 million in revenue and nearly 4,000 employees, both increases over the prior year, and since 2005 has opened 37 stores. That’s a lot of meat and potatoes.

 

Worst Debut

As the state’s largest unofficial industry, Arkansas Razorbacks fandom was put to the test — again — in 2013.

Bret Bielema’s first year as head football coach of the Razorbacks was ultimately forgettable, ending with an 0-8 record in the Southeastern Conference, the first winless campaign since the UA joined the league in 1992.

A nine-game losing streak and a nine-loss season had also never happened at Arkansas, until this year.

 

Best Eco Idea

EcoArk, a sustainability conglomerate based in Rogers, is taking a universal approach to solving the vast problem of how to keep waste out of the landfill.

Headquartered at the J.B. Hunt Parkway Tower on Pinnacle Hills Parkway, EcoArk acquired majority ownership in Intelleflex Corp., the Silicon Valley-based creator of ZEST, a farm-to-family food tracking system, and full ownership of SA Concepts, now called EcoVet, a Springdale-based company that repurposes over-the-road trailers into wood furniture.

EcoArk’s goal is to assemble a wide array of sustainability companies and become a global force in the effort to reduce waste and to reclaim material that otherwise would be thrown away.

Supported by influential investors, awesome technology and old-fashioned know-how, EcoArk, under the guidance of entrepreneur Randy May, might do just that.

Stay tuned.

 

Worst Amphitheater

The Osage Creek Amphitheater has been the source of speculation and skepticism for years, and 2013 was no different. In January, OCA owner Greg Smith faced a mini rebellion on the amphitheater’s Facebook page, when fans openly questioned his ability to finish building the venue in western Benton County.

In that spat between he and the naysayers, Smith said that the dream is still alive. But that might not be the case. A recent phone call to the number listed on the amphitheater’s website revealed that it’s out of service.

Can the same be said of Smith’s ability to get that venue up and out of the ground? And with the Arkansas Music Pavillion’s move to a choice location in Rogers, is the OCA now irrelevant? 

 

Worst Contractor

Contractor Grant Wise appeared in the news in May touting his plan to take the real estate world by storm through a unique plan to offer 100-percent commissions to his agents at Wise Custom Realty.

By October, however, Wise had been arrested for writing a hot check and his contractor’s license had been yanked by the state of Arkansas on the grounds of misconduct.

Homeowners lodged official complaints with the Arkansas Contractor’s Licensing Board, saying Wise, doing business as Wise Custom Inc., took money up front but never did the work for which he had been paid. Meanwhile, his partners in the real estate brokerage quickly distanced themselves from Wise, saying he had nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of the firm.

The last time Wise’s name was heard, it was from an aggrieved Fayetteville landowner who said she was pressing claims against him, and that she was going to teach him a lesson.

 

Best Room Service

The hotel-motel industry in Northwest Arkansas is probably in the best shape it’s ever been. A look at the numbers showed that the majority of the region’s largest hotels had an increase in revenue of more than 10 percent in 2012.

The industry’s health was highlighted by the July groundbreaking of the $12 million Hilton Garden Inn & Conference Center near the Wedington Road exit in Fayetteville. Taxes on hotel revenue are used to pay for special events, parks and other recreational amenities across the region.

 

Worst Restaurant Closing

After a decade of serving up scrumptious boudin and red beans and rice, Lynn D’s Cajun Gypsy Café in Fayetteville closed its doors. Restaurant owner Lynn DeFalice said they were caught in the lurch when the space they rented at 535 W. Poplar St. was sold.

She said she had trouble finding a new location with affordable rent, and after a few months of limbo, the restaurant closed for good in August.

 

Best Employee

Ralph Overstreet, founder of Overstreet Jewelry in downtown Bentonville, paid $4,000 for the store in 1948. Sixty-five years later, he’s stll showing up to work every day.

Overstreet, who turned 97 in October, told the Business Journal earlier this year he wakes up each day between 6 a.m. and 6:45 at his downtown Bentonville home, drives himself to breakfast — most of the time he’ll eat and socialize at Acropolis Restaurant in Bentonville — and then makes his daily visit to the post office before arriving to work shortly before 10 a.m.

 

Worst Rumor

Months after the death of flamboyant developer Gary Combs, rumors persisted that he was hiding out in Mexico, nursing a grudge against Northwest Arkansas and the bank presidents he’d feuded with in Washington County Circuit Court.

But his passing was real. According to a death certificate on file at the Washington County Courthouse, Combs died of colon cancer on Aug. 11, 2012, at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista, Calif. He was buried in rural Madison County at a small cemetery in Combs, where he grew up.

He left behind a mountain of debt, and had he remained alive, would have eventually been named as a defendant in the federal bank fraud case against Brandon Barber and his associates.

 

Worst Haus

Hog Haus Brewing Company in Fayetteville wasn’t allowed to sell beer and liquor on July 9 because the restaurant failed to renew its licenses by the annual state-mandated deadline of June 30.

Instead, the restaurant had to pay a $1,125 penalty in addition to the $2,250 renewal fee. Hog Haus, of course, also lost out on a full day of alcohol sales.   

 

Best Cocktail

Massachusetts transplant Sopheak Srunn showed what it takes to be a player in the newly minted Benton County liquor scene. Srunn put all his cards on the table when he moved to Northwest Arkansas with his family, invested nearly $1 million and opened one of the county’s first liquor stores, BJ’s Liquor, in the old Bob Maloney car dealership at 1902 S. 8th St. in Rogers.

Srunn, a native of Cambodia, is no stranger to the liquor industry. He ran a family-owned store for nearly a decade in Bridgewater, just south of Boston, before arriving here. When asked about the huge commitment he’d made to his Rogers enterprise, Srunn said, “I will live here and die here.” 

 

Worst Campaign Spending

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mark Darr, a former resident of Springdale, ended his run for U.S. Congress on Aug. 29, only 17 days after he entered the race.

Darr, the Republican Party’s highest constitutional officer, ended his campaign not long after a left-leaning Arkansas political blogger named Matt Campbell brought to light a number of questionable expenditures filed on Darr’s campaign finance reports.

Darr, who turned 40 in July, was narrowly elected the state’s lieutenant governor in November 2010.

After taking office, thousands of campaign dollars were spent in 2011 at gas stations, restaurants, men’s clothing stores, all rationalized by Darr as “supplies” or “fundraisers.”

Filing a public document that says you purchased $119.62 worth of “supplies” from Walker Brothers — Fayetteville’s noted high-end men’s clothing store — is a tough sell.

An ethics investigation into Darr’s campaign spending is still ongoing.

 

Best Investment

The best investment depends on who you ask. If you were to ask John James, though, he’d probably have a quick answer.

Fayetteville-based e-commerce firm Acumen Brands Inc., of which James is CEO, received an $83 million-plus investment in April from New York firm General Atlantic. It is the largest private offering in Arkansas history.

In the months that followed, Acumen moved from its 50,000-SF warehouse into a new, 200,000-SF facility on North Shiloh Drive, added dozens of new employees and opened a brick-and-mortar store on the downtown Fayetteville square for its wildly popular Country Outfitter western wear.

 

Notable Deaths

Northwest Arkansas lost several remarkable people in 2013, including John A. Cooper Jr., chairman of Cooper Communities Inc., of Bella Vista, who died Jan. 6 due to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is a breathing ailment. He was 74.

Cooper joined his father’s company, The Cherokee Village Development Co., which over the years converted to the John A. Cooper Co. and later to Cooper Communities Inc., which is headquartered in Rogers.

He was elected president in 1968 and chairman of the board in 2002.

Through Cooper’s leadership, the company developed planned retirement communities across the southeastern United States, including the Arkansas communities of Cherokee Village, Bella Vista Village and Hot Springs Village.

He was a founding member of the Arkansas Business Council and served on several boards, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.

On April 4, Bob McBride of Fayetteville, owner of Fayetteville-based McBride Distributing Inc., died at the age of 72. McBride assumed ownership of the Anheuser-Busch distributorship in 1964 following the untimely death of his father. He was 23, becoming the youngest AB distributor in the country.

Joe Fred Starr, a Fayetteville businessman and former executive with Tyson Foods Inc. from 1969-2002, died March 27 at Washington Regional Hospice. He was 79.

Starr, a close friend of late Tyson chairman Don Tyson, served on the company’s board of directors until 2002 and was a vice president until 1996.

Starr was also a real estate developer, owning several commercial properties and apartment complexes in Washington County.

Among the developments are what are now known as the North Creekside Apartments and South Creekside Apartments on Leverett Avenue in Fayetteville. Starr sold the two properties in 2003 for just less than $10 million.

Fayetteville District Judge Rudy Moore Jr., 69, died April 11 due to complications from cancer. Moore was a state legislator before becoming Bill Clinton’s campaign manager in the 1978 governor’s race, and later Clinton’s first chief of staff in the governor’s office.

Other notable passings this year include Frank W. Oldham Jr., 67, who was appointed to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees in 1990 and served until 2000, the last two years as chairman; Stanley Ludwig, 67, a city and district judge in Springdale for almost three decades until his retirement in October 2010; Howard Bagby Jr., 55, president of Providence Exploration and Production Inc. of Fort Smith; Jim Shearin, 67, an executive broker with Portfolio Luxury Real Estate in Rogers and one of the state’s most well-known real estate executives; and Patricia May, 55, editor of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal when the publication launched in April 1997.