ometimes you learn as much coming in second as you do when you win," Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe told us in his first interview with Site Selection two years ago. "You had better listen to companies, and we've done that."
      They sure have, with more wins as a result: According to the Conway Data New Plant Database, there were 36 wins between Jan. 2008 and early May 2009. Three of them came on one day in July 2008, all in the northwest Arkansas community of Fort Smith, near the Oklahoma state line along I-40. Two of those expansions come from companies who feel right at home with the outdoors allure of the Natural State: a maker of air guns, and a fishing-lure manufacturer.
      Whether you're looking for smallmouth lures, crankbaits, minnowbaits, plastic worms or jerkbaits, you can find it at PRADCO Outdoor Brands, one of 11 brands in the outdoor products division of Birmingham, Ala.-based EBSCO. And you can find PRADCO at a now-rising $21-million, 300,000-sq.-ft. (27,870-sq.-m.) manufacturing facility at Chaffee Crossing, the name given to some 7,000 acres (2,833 hectares) of the former Fort Chaffee outside Fort Smith.
      The facility replaces 120,000 sq. ft. (11,148 sq. m.) spread among three facilities in Fort Smith, and will be home to at least 150 jobs.
      "Pradco and its fishing lures have found a great fit in Fort Smith and the Natural State for 46 years," Gov. Mike Beebe said in a news release. "We appreciate their continued investment in Arkansas, especially as we work with businesses to redevelop this area of Fort Chaffee."
      Also relocating from elsewhere in Fort Smith to Chaffee Crossing is the fourth-largest airgun manufacturer in the world, Umarex USA. The company will shift its 22 employees from a 30,000-sq.-ft. (2,787-sq.-m.) facility to a new 100,000-sq.-ft. (9,290-sq.-m.) facility, and has plans to grow its payroll to between 60 and 120 people. The new complex will boast production and quality testing, a distribution center and, of course, a shooting range.
      The footprint for Umarex was originally going to be 65,000 sq. ft. (6,039 sq. m.). But once Umarex USA secured the 27 acres (11 hectares), its German parent company Umarex Corporate Group decided to add the extra space in order to locate a manufacturing operation for a newly created U.S. entity, Walther Industries, Inc. Umarex's holdings include the German firearms legend Walther, whose products are marketed in the States by Smith & Wesson.
      "Smith & Wesson will continue to be responsible for the sales and marketing and production of certain Walther firearm models in the U.S.A.," read an Umarex news release. "The newly formed Walther Industries will manufacture a variety of products including airguns and firearms, primarily for Umarex USA, but will also produce OEM products for other manufacturers and distributors."
      "Fort Smith is a terrific location for us, offering our companies a central location, a skilled work force and people with strong values," said Adam Blalock, president and CEO of Umarex USA.
      The third Fort Smith project was the relocation of custom restaurant and retail cabinetry maker QualServ's corporate headquarters from the Kansas City, Mo., area. The move will result in 40 new jobs in Fort Smith, as well as the addition of 75 new jobs at QualServ's existing manufacturing facility, paying an average wage of $17.75 per hour. The company maintains other manufacturing plants in Kansas City and in Columbia, S.C. The Fort Smith facility currently manufactures stainless steel and wood laminate products as well as additional equipment for the hospitality industry.
      The move is a watershed moment for a company that's had operations in Fort Smith for 30 years, and takes its Fort Smith payroll to well over 400 employees.
      "This is a prime example of how a strong manufacturing workforce can bring additional jobs and expansion to a community," Gov. Beebe said.
      "This would not have been possible without the support of Gov. Beebe, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce and the outstanding work ethic and dedication of the QualServ Fort Smith employees," said Fort Smith Vice President and General Manager Jerry Frederiksen.       Even with a $1.8-million Economic Development Administration grant to convert a former machining facility of its White-Rodgers division into a manufacturing plant, St. Louis-based Emerson Climate Technologies has put on hold its planned $120-million, 390-job Copeland Scroll brand compressor manufacturing project in the City of Batesville, in the north-central portion of the state, which the company had announced in August 2008. Emerson in early 2008 had announced the phase-out of the White-Rodgers facility, with the potential loss of 230 jobs.
      "The delay in the conversion is due to the current economic conditions and the changes in the market for our compressor products," says David Baldridge, Emerson spokesman. "The original 2010 time frame was based on the expanding global market for our Copeland brand products at that time. Emerson is re-examining its timetable for having the plant operational in 2010, depending on the pace of economic recovery. Emerson's commitment remains to the Batesville community, the Emerson work force there, the Arkansas Department of Economic Development and others we have worked with on this conversion project."
      Asked how the site came to be chosen for the project, announced in summer 2008, Baldridge says, "Batesville and the State of Arkansas had been great community partners for our White-Rodgers operations in that facility, and we wanted to continue that partnership with the conversion for our new Emerson Climate Technologies expansion. We also have a great work force here. Those factors, plus its close proximity to our operations in Ava, Mo., and Lebanon, Mo., made Batesville an ideal location for expansion." Wages at the new operation are supposed to average $14.51 per hour.
      According to Baldridge, the EDA grant, officially awarded at the end of May 2009, is just one component of the Emerson project funding, and will be applied to the conversion costs once the project gets under way. Ed Mabry, acting president of the Batesville Chamber of Commerce and chair of the Batesville Economic Development Commission says the grant is restricted to that use only.
      "The city has been doing some site work on the outside, street widening and sewer work that we needed to do anyway," he says. "Right now it's on hold, pending Emerson."It makes 25 million gallons of biodiesel a year from the chicken processing plants' cooking oil waste. The company was formed in 2006 after an acquisition of a specialty chemical plant formerly operated by Eastman Kodak and then Eastman Chemical Co., and today employs 400.
      But that doesn't mean the rest of town is. Job creation has recently come from two of the three chicken processing plants located next to each other in Batesville, with Pilgrim's Pride and ConAgra announcing expansions. In the meantime, the largest biodiesel producer in the state, FutureFuel Corp., has increased the length of its rail spur and expanded its chemical business.
      "We're also expanding at the airport," says Mabry. "One aviation maintenance facility has doubled its size, and we're about to build another hangar for the aviation mechanics school we have there."
      There likewise is no hold on the $2.5-million, 100-job expansion going on at Bad Boy Mowers, a zero-turn lawnmower manufacturer which knows how to re-use property. On the heels of a 2006 expansion into multi-terrain vehicle manufacturing with an operation in nearby Melbourne in a former Boeing facility, the company in August 2008 announced it would add to its assorted 200,000 sq. ft. (18,580 sq. m.) of Batesville mower manufacturing operations with an expansion into the 274,000-sq.-ft. (25,455-sq.-m.) former GDX Automotive plant, closed in fall 2007.
      "We are right in the middle of it," says Bad Boy spokesperson Danna Magness of the homegrown company's new project. She says the company will make its way toward the 100-job goal over the next five years. Meanwhile, she says, "We've hired about 50 people since the announcement."