Forty Under 40: Patrick Byrd

Patrick Byrd attributes his success to the people with whom he surrounds himself.

“I’m successful surrounding myself with really great people,” he said. “You have to have great employees and find solutions for your customers, or it doesn’t work.”

Three years ago, he and Joe Hardin founded 1912 Walton in Bentonville.

“We call ourselves a solutions company,” Byrd said. “We can buy and sell products. We can represent companies. We do consulting.”

In 2015, top-line revenue increased 50 percent to $12 million, from $8 million the previous year.

The Fort Smith native moved to Rogers seven years ago.

Byrd has also been successful as a real estate agent.

“I’ve been doing real estate projects for 20 years,” he said.

He’s managed a large portfolio of real estate for several groups of people who own storage facilities, offices and duplexes.

Over the past 12 years, he’s owned a high-volume furniture store, Furniture Emporium in Fort Smith. And, for seven years, he and a partner operated a search-engine optimization company.

But his focus is on the retail solutions company. In five years, he expects
to continue to offer “top-level service” in a “bigger, better version of 1912 Walton.”

In 2014, he graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in human resources.

Previously, he had planned on being a coach. His greatest mentor was his football coach at Trinity Junior High School.

Byrd is a volunteer coach, a former board moderator for Millwood Christian Church and supports Dig 4 Diabetes and Smile Train.

In his free time, he enjoys watching Razorback football, going to horse races and riding boats.