FRANK FLETCHER
COMPANIES, LIMITED

NLR's Fletcher Displays 'Midas Touch'
by David Smith
(Originally appearing in Arkansas Business, July 8, 1996)

A conversation with Sam Walton in the late 1970s could have ended Frank Fletcher's lucrative professional career. Instead it was the beginning of a more successful business.

Fletcher was one of the top manufacturers' representatives selling to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. But Walton told him Wal-Mart planned to bypass manufacturers' reps and deal directly with the factories.

The news so shook the gregarious 6-foot-4 salesman-entrepreneur that he asked, "Mr. Walton, would you like me to commit suicide here or would you like me to move out to the lobby so the blood won't mess up your office?" Walton laughed, then advised Fletcher to start his own manufacturing company.

Seventeen years later, Fletcher owns 12 companies with sales of more than $145 million. Frank Fletcher Cos. is a conglomerate with three manufacturing firms, three automobile dealerships, a hotel, a fur coat retail store, fan and lighting stores and in-house advertising and financing companies.

Cheyenne Industries, which started in 1980 along with Silverwood Products, is now the nation's largest supplier of portable lighting and is Wal-Mart's No. 1 vendor for lamps. In 1992, Fletcher bought Legacy Lamps, near Austin, Texas, and it is now the largest supplier of lamps to J.C. Penney Co. Cheyenne and Legacy combine for more than $100 million in annual sales.

His affiliation with Wal-Mart has been the foundation of his success, Fletcher says. Big blocks of Wal-Mart stock, acquired early and often, have helped as collateral for bank loans. He also followed "the Wal-Mart boys" he met in the 1960s.

"They became district managers, then regional managers and then vice presidents," Fletcher says. "Some left and went to Omaha [Neb.] and North Carolina and all over. So I began working the whole country and contacting these Wal-Mart people who became executives in other companies."

Contagious Smile

As he flies across the country several times a month, Fletcher's attire is more likely to be a black Tommy Hilfiger pullover shirt, black slacks and black leather boots rather than the customary business suit with white shirt and tie. His aversion to suits carries over to his employees, from plant workers to executives.

He so dislikes having his picture taken he wouldn't schedule a time for a photographer to take a picture to accompany this article.

His favorite pastime is following his small stable of six thoroughbred race horses.

Even while talking about an employee who stole almost $200,000 from him, Fletcher has a contagious smile. Ask him a question, and he'll likely answer with a story. If there is such a thing as a born salesman, Fletcher is one.

He learned hard work early.

He was adopted as an infant by a couple who owned a farm in Tamo, near Pine Bluff. He was their only child. When he finished high school, his father told him he had four years to finish college or he'd be driving a John Deere tractor the rest of his life.

Fletcher opted to finish college in the required four years. His first job was with Worthen Bank in Little Rock (now Boatmen's National Bank of Arkansas) making $385 a month.

"My wife made $600 a month, so I had to wash the dishes every night," Fletcher says. "I almost starved to death."

He walked into an Employment Security Department office one day and told them he wanted a sales job.

He started selling DuPont paint. In 1965, he met Walton at Wal-Mart's store No. 2 in Harrison. No one had ever sold paint to Wal-Mart, but Fletcher asked for a $1,500 order for 300 gallons. It took Walton two hours to make the decision, but he bought the paint.

"Here I was at 22 or 23 and I had met, unbeknownst to me, the top retailer in the world," Fletcher says.

Several years later, on Walton's advice, Fletcher became a manufacturers' representative for several companies.

"He said, `You're an aggressive young man. You need to go to New York and Chicago and find people who will sell to Wal-Mart.'"

Fletcher eventually found 30-40 lines that sold to Wal-Mart for 10-15 years. Then Walton hit Fletcher with the news about Wal-Mart dropping manufacturers reps.

Intelligent Executives

Fletcher's companies are so diversified, he says, because he always remembers how abruptly his career as a manufacturers' rep ended. He's surrounded with people, he says, who are smarter than he is and experts in their fields.

He reels off some of the names: Tom Roy, his holding company's chief financial officer; Alan Long, president of Cheyenne; Joe Yanosick, general manager of the Riverfront Hilton; Nancy Smith, manager of Fletcher Furs.

Roy, who worked for a Big Eight accounting firm before joining Fletcher, says Fletcher gives his managers carte blanche on making most decisions.

"His philosophy is to treat everyone like they are your friend," Roy says. "Everything we do is an extension of Frank Fletcher. He's a man of his word. We don't cheat anyone. That honest approach is one of the reasons we're so successful."

Fletcher's hiring practices are unusual. Everyone who works for him has a financial incentive to increase the base salary. When he decided to buy what is now Frank Fletcher Dodge in Jacksonville, he approached Rick Williams, who was general sales manager for Landers Auto Sales in Benton.

Fletcher's proposal to Williams, though, was amazing: Come to work for me for one-third of your income. Fletcher promised Williams a new location in Sherwood (construction begins this month) and an ownership interest in the dealership when it begins to succeed.

Before he took the job, though, Williams talked with several of Fletcher's executives.

"I often wondered why all his employees stayed with him so long," says Williams, who worked five years for Landers and 12 years with Little Rock Dodge before that. "They told me how Frank really takes care of his people."

That hit home with Williams last month when his father died. The funeral was in the tiny community of Onia (Stone County). Fletcher and executives of his other companies sent about 10 big baskets of flowers and wreaths, Williams says.

"The next day, there were even more flowers," Williams says. "On the day of the funeral, as the people walked by to view my father, Frank Fletcher was the first one to walk by. I didn't even know he was there. A guy who owns 10 or 12 companies took time to drive all the way to Onia, Arkansas.

"He's a businessman first, but he likes to take care of his people." [related story]

Long met Fletcher in 1971 when Long was "as low on the totem pole as you can get" at Sterling Stores Co. They remained acquaintances as Long moved up the company ladder. When he decided to leave Sterling in the 1980s, he sought out Fletcher and asked to work at Fletcher's Factory Firsts stores.

"Actually I took a cut in pay," says Long, who has directed Cheyenne Industries for six years. "I could have probably made more initially if I'd gone to work for Wal-Mart, but I liked Frank and he had the Midas touch. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. He worked hard, and I felt like I had a future."

Still a Salesman
Fletcher admits that he has nothing to do with the day-to-day operation of any of the companies. He draws no salary from any of them, he says, but is paid solely on how much he sells.

Just like he was for his first 17 professional years, he's still a manufacturers' rep. He just happens to represent the products his companies sell.

"Today I still do exactly what I did in 1965," Fletcher says. "I sell. If you ask me any question about how that mirror machine works or how we make lamps, I really don't know. I still carry my briefcase and do what I did when I first started. That's what I'm good at."

CLOSE THIS WINDOW TO RETURN TO THE MAIN WEBSITE

If you were not directed here from our main site,

click here to go to Frank Fletcher Companies, Ltd.