Delta Dental of Arkansas

In 2005, Delta Dental of Arkansas battled the nation’s largest and most successful insurance companies for a prize account — and won.

The Sherwood-based insurance company, which started in 1982, picked up steam in 1990 when it landed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville’s account to handle its dental benefits. But in 2000, Wal-Mart decided to take a fourth of its business and move it to another carrier, said Ed Choate, Delta Dental president and CEO. In 2005, Wal-Mart decided to put the whole dental benefits business up for bid.

“We would either lose everything, keep what we had or get every thing,” Choate said. “So here we are, this little 150-employee company in Sherwood, Arkansas, going up against MetLife, Aetna, Cigna and everybody else. But we got it all.”

The move helped pump up its revenue from $128 million in 2000 to $246 million in 2005. This year it is projecting revenue of about $270 million.

In Arkansas, Delta Dental is the state’s largest provider of dental insurance and administration services. It covers about 900,000 employees and about 1.5 million lives.

Choate said this is the company’s secret to success: Even though it has the accounts for the biggest companies in the state, “we focus on taking care of the smallest companies as well.”

He also said Delta Dental’s price for insurance is competitive.

“We’re focused just on dental, that’s all we do,” Choate said. “So we like to think that we do it better because this is our area of expertise.”

Choate said the biggest challenge the company faces is trying to compete with the biggest insurance companies in the country.

“It’s a huge challenge because they have so many more dollars to invest in technology and so many more cost-containment methodologies,” he said.

But Delta Dental has found ways to stay competitive — and to spread its wealth.

Its charitable giving has quadrupled since 2002, when it gave $100,000. In 2005, Delta Dental gave away more than $400,000.

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