Five Rivers Manufacturing expands in Corning - Talk Business & Politics
Five Rivers Manufacturing expanded its Corning headquarters Wednesday (Aug. 12), marking a new chapter for the company’s 92-year-old G&H Decoys, and the family of outdoor companies now manufacturing alongside it. . . .
Five Rivers Manufacturing expanded its Corning headquarters Wednesday (Aug. 12), marking a new chapter for the company’s 92-year-old G&H Decoys, and the family of outdoor companies now manufacturing alongside it. The Corning facility now produces G&H Decoys alongside three brands Five Rivers acquired in 2025 — Deception Decoys and Dogg Company, both founded in Kansas, and Hebert’s Custom Decoy Rigs, founded in Louisiana — bringing four American-made outdoor brands into full production under one roof. “People ask why Five Rivers came to Arkansas. The truth is it wasn’t a hard call. If you are going to be in the waterfowl and outdoor industry, there is no better place on earth to call home,” said Joshua Stratton, Vice President of Five Rivers Manufacturing. “The flooded timber, the rivers, the rice fields — the finest waterfowl country in the world is out our back door. That’s not scenery to us. That is an unmatched playground for research and development. We don’t have to imagine the conditions our products face. We just have to walk outside. ”Gov. Sarah Sanders joined the celebration alongside Arkansas Secretary of Commerce Hugh McDonald. Duck hunting is an economic engine in Arkansas. According to the Arkansas Economic Development Institute, waterfowl season generates $4. 25 million a day for the state’s economy over its two-month run. “Corning sits right in the heart of the Mississippi flyway in the middle of the best duck hunting in America,” Sanders said. “And today, they’re opening a facility that will make it possible for G&H and Five Rivers to continue to serve Arkansans for generations to come. ”Sanders noted that continued investment in outdoor recreation, like Five Rivers’ expansion, will help keep that economic engine growing across the state. “G&H plays a big part in making that happen, driving jobs and investment to a part of the Natural State that’s earned it,” Sanders said. “And with their help, we’re not just making Arkansas duck hunts better. We’re making our state a better place than ever to live, to work and to raise a family. So to everyone who helped make this facility possible, we thank you. ”Five Rivers invested more than $2. 1 million in G&H’s purchase, relocation and restart in 2024, and the Corning expansion is expected to bring the region’s total new jobs to more than 75. A recent four-hour job fair in Corning drew more than 300 applications. Landon Wilson of Halsey Real Estate, who helped broker the deal, said the skepticism the project faced early on made Wednesday’s opening especially meaningful. “When we took on this assignment, what I was told was, ‘It’s in the wrong spot, it’s too expensive, and good luck,'” Wilson said. “I think with us being here today, it proves that Corning in Northeast Arkansas is not in the wrong spot. There’s value in this community, and hard work takes precedence over luck. ”Stratton also credited Milton Smith of First National Bank of Commerce and Mike Thompson of First Horizon Bank for helping the company navigate its move to a rural community. “Big companies in big cities have systems. Rural towns have people,” Stratton said. “When we hit a wall — and you always hit a wall as a small business — these men didn’t hand us a form. They picked up the phone. They sat across the table. They found a way. ”G&H was founded in 1934 by John J. Gazalski. He made his first duck decoy amid new federal restrictions on the use of live birds as hunting decoys — a practice fully banned by 1935. Demand for Gazalski’s handcrafted shell decoys grew quickly, and by 1940 he’d secured a patent and expanded operations in partnership with his father-in-law, J. V. Hutton — giving the company its name. In 1956, G&H Decoy Manufacturing Co. began producing plastic decoys and soon after introduced some of the industry’s first floating decoys, cementing its place as the oldest production waterfowl decoy manufacturer in the United States. In February 2024, G&H’s former parent company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Five Rivers moved quickly to purchase the brand and keep it alive, taking possession of G&H’s Henrietta, Oklahoma factory that August with just 60 days to clear the 110,000-square-foot facility and relocate to Arkansas. The company initially found its new home in a vacant Walmart supercenter in Corning that had sat empty since 2018. Last year, Five Rivers purchased the vacant Corning Publishing building in Corning, now home to multiple Five Rivers Manufacturing brands. “Since those early days, the company has been producing made-in-America products and providing outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen with quality decoys,” McDonald said. “They fiercely fought foreign competition and outsourcing their product manufacturing to foreign companies, when so many of their competitors did that. That obviously created challenges for them, but they stuck with the ‘Made in America’ brand, and we’re so proud that they did that. ”Related