Oscar Cozzini started his Arkansas stone company, RH Preyda, only 2½ years ago, and he has already more than tripled revenue and doubled the number of employees.
RH Preyda, based near Hot Springs, was presented with the Governor's Award for Excellence in Global Trade for small manufacturers and exporters on Tuesday in a ceremony at the Governor's Mansion sponsored by the Arkansas District Export Council.
The company exports to about 15 countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Cozzini, chief executive officer of RH Preyda, recently returned from Germany, where he attended a trade show.
"It was unbelievably interesting how many people came up to us," Cozzini said. "They said, 'Arkansas stone? We didn't think it existed anymore.' Everybody recognizes the quality of the Arkansas stone."
Before he founded RH Preyda, Cozzini started other businesses with his brothers, including a knife-sharpening company.
Through that business, they knew that there are high-quality sharpening stones indigenous to Arkansas, Cozzini said.
Cozzini bought two businesses in the Hot Springs area and formed RH Preyda, named for Richard Hall, an owner of one of the businesses Cozzini acquired, and Preyda, an Italian term for sharpening stone.
The sharpeners are made from novaculite stone that is quarried by hand in the Ouachita Mountains near Hot Springs, Cozzini said.
RH Preyda products are for industrial and consumer use. The sharpeners are designed for a number of industries, including knife and tool edge maintenance, medical, dental, sporting and outdoor, jewelry and gold testing.
"We will always be processing the stone in the state of Arkansas," Cozzini said. "Because it's only in Arkansas, but also because moving stone around is not [cost-efficient]."
Other winners of the export awards were Rock Town Distillery of Little Rock, which won the Arkansas Rising Star award; Cobb-Vantress of Siloam Springs, which won the Agricultural Export award; CAT Squared of Conway, winner of the Medium Manufacturer Exporter; and Esterline Defense Technologies of East Camden, which won the Larger Manufacturer Exporter award.
CAT Squared, which has been in Conway for 20 years, develops software for the food industry. The software gives CAT Squared's customers current data from the plant floor and reporting for production and inventory.
The software also focuses on food safety and quality, said Vernon Smith, chief executive officer of CAT Squared.
"Our solutions manage this entire process," Smith said. "It ensures that they stay within the guidelines. And we track everything throughout the process. So we can provide that traceability that our customers require."
CAT Squared, which has 35 employees in Conway, is negotiating a merger with a company in Atlanta that develops software to track the growth of animals to slaughter, Smith said. One company is not buying the other -- it is strictly a merger, Smith said.
CAT Squared exports its products to Canada, Mexico, in much of Central America, Panama and Argentina, Smith said.
"We're just now getting into South America," Smith said.
To distill its spirits, Rock Town Distillery uses corn, wheat and rye grown in Arkansas within 125 miles of Little Rock.
Cobb-Vantress, a subsidiary of Tyson Foods, is a 100-year-old company that sells live breeder chicks to customers in the United States and internationally.
Esterline Defense, which has more than 270 employees in East Camden, produces the largest and most varied line of combustible ordnance and countermeasure products in the world. Two Esterline employees were injured Monday in an explosion at a Highland Industrial Park plant where flares are produced. The employees were taken to the burn unit at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Business on 05/25/2016