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In Retirement, Mike McFarland Swings for the Fences

2 min read

Mike McFarland didn’t spend much time in retirement.

After retiring from Arvest Bank earlier this year, McFarland bought Modern Fence & Supply Co. of Springdale. McFarland and partner Rick Barrows paid $2.3 million for the company, which has a 12,165-SF office on a 1.8-acre lot at 1864 Ford Ave.

McFarland said $500,000 was for the property itself and the rest was for the ownership of the company. McFarland said Modern Fence did approximately $3.5 million in sales in 2015 and approximately 350 projects.

McFarland spent five years as a senior vice president at Arvest and before that spent nearly eight years as Springdale market president of First Security Bank. The seller was the Milligan Family through the Roy J. Milligan Trust.

McFarland said Steve Milligan put the company up for sale three years ago and occasionally called Arvest and McFarland for insight on potential buyers. After he retired from the bank, McFarland became a suitor.

“This was an opportunity that just came up,” McFarland said. “It has been running smoothly for a long time. It has a great name and a great reputation. Our motto is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We’re just going to try to make it run a little better.”

McFarland said the company has a staff of about 20 and he doesn’t foresee any changes. McFarland said in addition to running operations at First Security Bank, he also owned a title company so he has some experience at managing a company.

His partner, Barrows, is the president of Multi-Craft Contractors.

“This ought to be a really cool segue for me,” McFarland said. “I’ll have to learn the fencing business.”

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