NO BLUFF: After years of economic woes and bad press,
PINE BLUFF
“
I
t’s not as easy as you’d think,” and “It’s a complicated process.” These are a few of the quotes Hunter Breshears provides when asked about the work of the Highland Pellets plant in Pine Bluff. Breshears, chief operating officer of Highland Pellets, is talking about his company’s procedure for making small wood pellets for use in power plants, but he may as well be talking about what’s happening in Pine Bluff. The Highland Pellets plant, which opened in 2016, is a small part of a much broader effort to move the once-thriving Southeast Arkansas city forward and help the community recover from years of economic malaise and negative publicity. Breshears, who grew up in Pine Bluff and worked internationally with Tyson and Hormel Foods, joined Highland
6
IS POISED FOR A COMEBACK
Pellets after hearing about and meeting its co-founder and chairman, Tom Reilley. Reilley, a New Hampshire-based investor and entrepreneur, discovered Pine Bluff while scouting potential sites for the pellet plant. “I heard about Tom Reilley in late 2016 ... I wanted to talk to him because I heard about what he was doing with Highland Pellets and building and growing the company, but I also heard about what he was doing for the community,” says Breshears. “It sparked my curiosity. Why does a guy from New Hampshire want to be in Pine Bluff, Arkansas? What would make him think that he needs to help a community in a very depressed part of southern Arkansas – besides building a company? “ Breshears had dinner with Reilley during one of his many
Front Porch
|
ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU • WINTER 2019
