Ozark Mountain Poultry Begins Production In Warren

Dr. Ed Fryar, CEO of Ozark Mountain Poultry, speaks to the large crowd at Friday's OMP Warren Plant ribbon cutting.

Officials of the City of Warren and Ozark Mountain Poultry along with community leaders, state officials and guest gathered in the front of the plant entrance Friday October 4th to cut the ribbon and commemorate the start of production of the OMP Warren Plant.  On hand to speak was Warren Mayor Bryan Martin, Dr. Ed Fryar, CEO of Ozark Mountain Poultry, Jeff Coffman, Facilities Manager of the Warren plant and a part owner and John Lipton of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.  Mr. Lipton read a letter of congratulations from Governor Beebe.

OMP is headquartered in Rogers, Arkansas and has facilities in Rogers and Batesville, Arkansas.  They currently employee around 1100 people.  The company was started in Rogers in 2001 and originated with 25 workers.  The business now consists of plants , a feed mill and growers.  OMP specializes in healthy chickens free of antibiotics.  It is a privately held company.

Mayor Bryan Martin welcomed OMP to Warren and offered to continue to work with them as they establish the Warren facility and to help them grow.  The Mayor talked about the nearly two year effort that resulted in the OMP decision to locate in Warren.  He introduced City Council members Fufa Fullerton, Dorothy Henderson, Zack Burks, Jimmy Moseley and Marty Reep.  The Mayor also introduced city  department heads who were present.  He welcomed all in attendance and thanked OMP for coming to Warren.  The Mayor thanked Arkansas Development  Finance Authority for working to get the  building for OMP and Arkansas Economic Development Commission for their assistance with job training programs.

A big crowd was in attendance for the opening ceremony.

Dr. Edward Fryar, the CEO of Ozark Mountain Poultry addressed the crowd and expressed the company's appreciation to the City of Warren and the people of Warren for their welcome and help.  He told those in attendance that he had always been partial to Lumberjacks because his grandfather was an actual Lumberjack in the timber industry.  He also thanked Warren for sending the "big three" to Fayetteville to play for the Razorbacks.  Of course he was speaking of Jarius Wright, Chris Gragg and Greg Childs.

Dr. Fryar talked about OMP, what they do and how they go about the business.  He stated that a  company is people, not buildings or facilities and that the people will make the plant a success.  He said business is a competition and his company operates on the basis of producing one chicken at a time and providing a premium product at an affordable cost.  There will be more about Dr. Fryar in an interview he granted to salineriverchronicle.com to be published soon.  The local management team for the plant was introduced.

Jeff Coffman made comments and stated that without the help and assistance  provided by Mayor Bryan Martin the project would never have become a reality.  He thanked OMP and the people of Warren and stated he looked forward to the future and a successful operation in Warren.

Dr. Fryar indicated that the plant has hired 125 employees and plans to hire another shift soon that will raise the number to around 240.  Future plans could add more.

A short video about OMP was shown and refreshments were served.

Facility Manager of the Warren OMP Plant, Jeff Coffman

Warren Mayor Bryan Martin welcoming the audience to the day's event.