Zero Mountain Inc.*

Zero Mountain Does Well in Sub-Zero Temperatures

In the past 15 years, Zero Mountain Inc. at Fort Smith has put the freeze on its competition.

During that period, Zero Mountain, which stores and distributes frozen foods, saw its revenue jump 614 percent, from $3.5 million to $25 million.

Its average annual revenue growth of nearly 18 percent since 1987 puts the company in the top 1 percent of its industry.

The company, which has been around since the 1950s, really took off when Planter’s Peanuts approached it for storage space in the late 1980s. It was at that point that Zero Mountain decided to expand, said president and CEO Mark Rumsey.

The company has grown from 26 employees in 1987 to more than 300 in 2001.

The secret of the company’s success is the way it takes care of its employees, Rumsey said.

“You have to remember it’s a rather harsh environment,” he said, since the temperature remains below zero in the warehouses.

Some of the benefits the company offers include a 2-for-1 match in the employee’s 401(k) program and profit sharing.

Another key to the company’s prosperity is its investment in technology. Zero Mountain, Rumsey said, is the only cold-storage provider with full radio frequency capability, allowing clients to know where their product is at all times.

To ensure quality for its customers, temperatures are within one degree of each other at the company’s four facilities at Johnson, Fort Smith, Lowell and Russellville.

A group of investors, including Rumsey’s father, Joseph Rumsey, founded Zero Mountain in 1955. The company’s storage space was in a limestone mine in Johnson, with 25,000 SF of refrigerated and freezer space. In 2001, it has 275,000 SF of freezer space at the four facilities. In 2000, the company handled more than 2 billion pounds of frozen foods.

The company recently spent $14 million to expand its Fort Smith and Russellville plants, he said.

Rumsey said the company’s plan for the future is simple: continue to grow.