Dennis Bergthold decided to open a car dealership in his hometown of Siloam Springs in 1993 and that is how 2B’s Auto Sales began.  So who is the other B?  His wife, Sue Bergthold is the other B.  They are committed to honesty and kindness. 

The Bergtholds keep both their website, www.2bsautosales.com, and their Facebook Page updated with all of the latest deals they have to offer for the convenience of their customers. They are also pleased that the staff at 2 B’s has been with them for the past four and a half years. The unique employees at 2 B’s love cars and enjoy helping people with automotive needs.

Dennis has a drive to provide the best value on an automobile that he can to his customers. “We self-warranty most of the vehicles we sell,” he said. “We don’t feel our customers should be spending money repairing their new car just after they bought it. We treat customers as we would want to be treated, even offering financing options. By doing this, we find our customers become our best advertising.”

“Arvest has always been my bank,” said the owner of 2B’s Auto Sales Inc.  2B's Auto Sales, Inc., and Arvest have been doing business together since 1993.

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If you have been an Arvest business customer for more than five years and would like the opportunity to be one of our 50th Anniversary Business Spotlight Stories, please contact us at  interact@arvest.com or speak to your business banker.

Arvest Joplin is proud of the relationship it has with one of the area’s largest providers of employment services.  Employer Advantage has been serving clients in the four state area for 21 years.  Employer Advantage decreases a business owner’s burden by handling everyday administrative functions such as payroll processing, human resources, benefits administration, workers compensation and risk management.  As one size does not fit all in terms of business entities, their unique service model is based on individuals.  Employer Advantage helps businesses focus on their individual profit center and concentrate on what they are in business to do.

“We are one of the best kept secrets in the area,” said Employer Advantage President Lee Allphin.  “Employer Advantage is a stress reliever for many businesses.  By using combined resources, the business community is benefited greatly by valuable expertise at a fraction of the cost it would take to have all these experts in their own business.” 

Arvest Bank’s Cash Management System has allowed Employer Advantage to monitor and reconcile their cash accounts and accounts receivable on a daily basis. Arvest’s Purchasing Cards eliminate paper checks and help better control their business costs.  Employer Advantage provides a great service to the community and has been a customer of the bank since they opened their first Joplin branch in 1998!  Arvest Bank looks forward to helping them continue to thrive for years to come.     
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If you have been an Arvest business customer for more than five years and would like the opportunity to be one of our 50th Anniversary Business Spotlight Stories, please contact us at  interact@arvest.com or speak to your business banker.

Arvest Bank, North Central Arkansas, is proud to announce that the 15th annual Arvest Charity Golf Tournament to be held on Saturday, August 27, 2011 at the Diamond Hills Country Club. This year’s tournament will benefit Grandma’s House in Boone County, the Marion County Rotary Club’s OUR Kids program, and Gamma House in Baxter County.  To read more about the event, please read the press release below.

Grandma’s House
Previously, Grandma’s House Child Advocacy Center (GH) was under the umbrella organization of the Merlin Foundation that was established in 1994 as one of the first children’s advocacy centers in Arkansas. In August of 2010, GH began providing forensic interviews in a newly renovated home near downtown Harrison. Prior to having GH, the options for interviewing an alleged child victim of abuse often were re-traumatizing to the child. GH works with the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape, and Domestic Violence and the Arkansas State Police to serve Boone, Newton, Carroll, Madison, Baxter and Marion counties.  They strive to provide the least traumatizing investigation at their child friendly home like setting, by providing complete forensic interviews and medical examinations.

Marion County Rotary OUR Kids Program
The Marion County Rotary OUR Kids program began in 1993 to provide assistance for children in Marion County, when assistance thru Medicare, Medicaid, AR Kids, etc. is not available. It is administered by a committee composed of the Department of Human Services (DHS), Marion County Health Unit, all three schools in Marion County, and the Rotary Club. When a child has a need that is determined thru DHS, the health dept., or their school, the officials complete a short one page application that will accompany the child to the DHS office. DHS will then evaluate and determine if the child is receiving all qualified assistance and, if not, then OUR Kids program will help meet that child’s needs.

GAMMA House in Baxter County
Gamma House is a non-profit women and children’s transitional housing shelter that serves North Central Arkansas and Southern Missouri.  They are a transitional housing shelter for women and children.  Their goal, as a facility, is for each woman to become an independent and successful member of our community; in some cases for the first time in their lives. 

The Arvest charity committee sponsors this annual golf tournament to raise funds to support local charitable organizations in Baxter, Boone and Marion counties. Each charity must apply to become “Charity of the Year.”  Recipients are selected on criteria that include past, present and future financial needs and must also be a designated IRS 501(c)(3) organization to be considered.

This year the tournament will feature special event holes, raffle prizes, longest putt competition, closest to the line competitions for women and men, a closest to the pin hole competition, hole in one prizes and $2,700 in flight money.  Teams of two can register by calling  (870) 449-7164 or by visiting arvest.com/nca.  The team registration fee is $120 and includes the mulligans. The deadline for registration is August 24th. There are also still hole sponsorships available for businesses and individuals.
 

Ozark Orthopaedics, formed in 1948, has grown in the resulting 63 years to four locations covering Northwest Arkansas, including Fayetteville, Rogers, Siloam Springs and Eureka Springs. The group features 16 board certified and eligible, on-staff physicians who are fellowship trained in all Orthopaedic specialties.

“The area chose us,” said Pat McAnally of Ozark Orthopaedics.  The Ozark Mountains, while beautiful and picturesque, also created a physical barrier to easy travel at that time and required physicians, like those at Ozark Orthopaedics, to be available to Northwest Arkansas’ growing population.

Patients no longer have to go out of the area to receive Orthopaedic specialty care, as Ozark Orthopaedics cover all specialties within the practice of Orthopaedics. The group’s website, ozarkorthopaedic.com, lists 10 areas of specialty, along with magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, services.

The group has banked with Arvest since 1997.  “Arvest Commercial Loan division has allowed our group to grow over the years," said McAnally. "Without their help we would not be able to provide cutting edge specialty care for our patients.”

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If you have been an Arvest business customer for more than five years and would like the opportunity to be one of our 50th Anniversary Business Spotlight Stories, please contact us at  interact@arvest.com or speak to your business banker.

When a store is named after a chicken farm, a bit of whimsy is expected when customers step inside the door.

Chicken Holler, founded in 1977 by Carl and Pat Odom, is a family owned and operated store that caters to gardeners and homeowners throughout Farmington and Washington County.

Now owned by youngest daughter Carla and her husband Jimmy Gibson since 1988, the store provides bulk garden seeds and bedding plants grown in its own greenhouses to the avid gardener.

“We specialize in many varieties of tomatoes and peppers in the spring,” Jimmy Gibson said. “In the nursery you’ll find Stark Brothers’ fruit trees, roses, lawn trees, shrubs and perennials as well as spring flowering bedding plants and hanging baskets.”

Homeowners can find a wide selection of wood stoves, fireplace inserts, wood furnaces and gas stoves, along with all the piping required to install them.

“Just a few days after opening, three businessmen from town who knew Carl stopped by to see how the store was doing. They looked around, talked a while, and, before they left, they told Carl the business wouldn’t last six months,” Gibson said. “Well, I guess they were wrong.”

Gibson said strong support from Arvest Bank has helped Chicken Holler continue to prove those businessmen wrong since 1977.

“They have always been upfront and helpful with me. It is nice to know they are hometown people who will be there if you have a problem,” Gibson said. “It’s always better to do business with hometown people.”

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If you have been an Arvest business customer for more than five years and would like the opportunity to be one of our 50th Anniversary Business Spotlight Stories, please contact us at  interact@arvest.com or speak to your business banker.

Webb’s Feed and Seed Store in Pea Ridge, opened in 1936, operates on the adage that, if something works well, there is no reason to change it.

September will mark the 75th anniversary for this community business that is still operated by its owner Fred McKinney, 90. McKinney’s son, Doug McKinney and two grandchildren, Aaron and Orren, help customers and stock the shelves.

Fred McKinney bought his father-in-law’s hatchery business and turned it into a feed store. Content to supply the customers he knew best with what they needed, McKinney has operated his small store for the past 75 years without needing to expand its services.

Visitors feel as if they step back in time when they walk through the door of the early-20th Century building in Pea Ridge’s Commercial Historic District. No computers track customer purchases or maintain a running inventory; each transaction is entered into a manual cash register.

As its name suggests, Webb Feed and Seed offers feed for farm stock, pets, poultry and many other animals. Customers can find weed killers, animal antibiotics, garden plants, fly sprays and even fresh eggs along the store’s shelves.

Webb’s still offers a service long since considered to have gone the way of the horse and buggy — a customer credit account. Tracked by hand-written charge tickets, customers have commented that, without the credit account, many people in the area would not have been able to survive harder times in this north Benton County town.

Another aspect of the business that works well is the relationship that McKinney has maintained with Arvest Bank and its predecessor, the Bank of Pea Ridge.

“Webb’s Feed Store has always banked with the Bank of Pea Ridge/Arvest for the past 75 years,” said Fred McKinney.  “In fact, my first money was deposited into the Bank of Bentonville (later Arvest Bank) when I was a young boy.”
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If you have been an Arvest business customer for more than five years and would like the opportunity to be one of our 50th Anniversary Business Spotlight Stories, please contact us at  interact@arvest.com or speak to your business banker.

Experiencing strong growth during tough economic times is no easy accomplishment, but Premier Staffing has succeeded. The company attributes its growth to simply having qualified people providing a quality service. While staffing firms around the country have experienced 30 to 40 percent losses in recent years, Premier Staffing has shown double-digit, annual growth.

The organization’s secret weapon is its “PremierMatch” proprietary process, which clarifies hiring criteria and screens appropriate candidates from a large pool of applicants. Following this process, Premier Staffing presents its clients with three candidates to interview for the open position within their company.

Premier Staffing, an Arkansas-based company, has worked with Arvest Bank since 2000 and operates across the United States with an industrial division, an office administration and professionals division, and a premier search division. The premier search division offers nationwide recruiting of highly specialized key employees in the engineering, finance, food service and consumer products markets.

The growth of the company is rooted in hard work by Premier Staffing associates and the help of Arvest. “Arvest has just been terrific when it comes to really getting involved with our management team and taking the time to really understand how our business operates, including our goals and possible obstructions,” said Dwight Segraves, Premier’s vice president of sales and marketing. “I never worry about if Arvest Bank and their associates will be there to support me and make sure we have the financial resources available to us to ensure our continued success.”

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If you have been an Arvest business customer for more than five years and would like the opportunity to be one of our 50th Anniversary Business Spotlight Stories, please contact us at  interact@arvest.com or speak to your business banker.

With over 60 years experience, it would be safe to say that the people of Allen’s Grocery, located in Summit, Arkansas, know their business. The store may be small, but locals have been known to compare it to an Arabian marketplace tent – from the outside, it may seem small, but inside its offerings are plentiful.

This family-owned operation has now spanned four generations, but it’s more than just a mom-and-pop shop. Allen’s grocery supplies people in the area with fresh produce, a meat and deli department, Hunt Brother’s Pizza and Champ’s Chicken among their offerings.

Tony Allen, owner of Allen’s Grocery, knows the importance of being a local business and in taking advantage of what is around you. He stated that there is no place he would rather be than in scenic North Central Arkansas. “For my family, Marion Country, Arkansas is the greatest place on Earth.”

Allen’s Grocery and its owners have worked with Arvest Bank in several different capacities. “Arvest has invested in us with loans for upgrades to the grocery store and with personal loans”, said Allen. While Arvest and Allen’s Grocery have been partners for years, the relationship is much more than just business.

Allen summed it up in saying, “With Arvest, we are not a number, we are friends.”  Allen's Grocery has been a customer for 25 years.

 
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If you have been an Arvest business customer for more than five years and would like the opportunity to be one of our 50th Anniversary Business Spotlight Stories, please contact us at  interact@arvest.com or speak to your business banker.