Poultry Company Chief Sees Bright Future For Chicken Consumption
by January 20, 2015 7:11 pm 179 views
People’s tastes can be different. Some folks like chicken and some folks like beef.
However, the chicken market has benefitted from the changes in both taste and demographics, the leader of a chicken company with new Arkansas operations said Tuesday.
Dr. Ed Fryar, the CEO of Ozark Mountain Poultry, spoke to around 250 people at the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce Ag Breakfast event at the Hilton Garden Inn.
Fryar said he started the company in April 2001, with about 25 employees. That number has grown to nearly 1,200 in the last year with facilities in Batesville, Bay, Rogers and Warren.
According to the company’s website, the Batesville and Rogers facilities process the meat, while the chickens are deboned at the Warren facility.
The Bay facility is able to handle 1.7 million bushels of grain to help feed the chickens.
The company makes around 550 trips each week to move grain and the birds, with each facility within a 100-mile radius of one another, Fryar told the group.
BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
Fryar also discussed his business philosophy with the Northeast Arkansas business group.
“Why do companies exist?” Fryar asked.
“Make a profit,” one man said in the audience.
“Yes, you have to make a profit. About 90 percent of the people would say that and they would be wrong,” Fryar said.
Fryar told the group that companies, while working to make a profit, exist to create value for their customers.
He said his business competes for customers, employees and investors on a daily basis using innovative ways to reach them.
The company uses a “Circle of Success”, based on Biblical verses, to inspire employees, Fryar said.
He quoted three verses – Ecclesiastes 9:10, Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 and I Peter 5:2 – in particular. He said the verses in Ecclesiastes 9 implore people to do the best they can, while Ecclesiastes 3 discusses how people should look at their job.
“I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life,” Ecclesiastes 3: 12 reads in part. “And also, that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all of his labour, it is the gift of God.”
Fryar said the verse in I Peter provides leadership principles.
“You have to be eager to serve,” Fryar said, noting “To be a good leader, you also have to be a good shepherd.”
Nearly 90 percent of the company’s employees receive some sort of incentive pay, Fryar said.
“You have to align the interests of the employees with the company,” Fryar said.
NICHE MARKET
Fryar said the company works in a niche market by handling non-genetically modified chicken. The chickens are sold in stores like Sam’s Club.
Overall, at least 40 billion pounds of chicken are produced annually in the U.S. with the average person eating about 85 pounds of chicken per year, Fryar said, citing industry data.
Most of the chicken in the United States is sold in the fast food, retail and food service industries. Fryar said his company is involved at the retail level.
As for the future, Fryar said he believes there will be more growth in the chicken industry.
“My daughter eats chicken, the way my parents eat beef,” Fryer said of the demographic shift. “It has been going on for years and I believe chicken will pass beef.”
The proceeds from the breakfast help to pay for agriculture scholarships at Arkansas State University, as well as paying for four ASU agriculture students to attend the chamber’s D.C. fly-in each year.