New owners, new name: Bryant Plastics becomes Wilson Industries after recent sale to Nebraska couple
Roger and Sherri Wilson, formerly of Nebraska, shown here with their dog Libby, have purchased Bryant Plastics manufacturing company on Highway 5 north of Gainesville. The business was started in 1974 by James R. Beasley, but for most of its history has been owned by Ralph Brown. Times photos / Jenny Yarger.
Roger and Sherri Wilson anticipate that all five of their adult children will eventually work at Wilson Industries. On Dec. 11, officer manager Cindy Winslow organized a “surprise open house” to welcome the family to the business–and the area – and arranged for all of the couple’s children except one (son Jordan Wilson and wife Heather) to attend the event, surprising their parents. Front row, from left: Mykah Wilson, Savannah Wilson, Sherri Wilson, Shelly Fortner, Brandon Lotter. Back: Jeremy Moore, Kristina Richards, Nathan Stuckemeyer, Roger Wilson, Elijah Wilson, Trent Fortner. The oldest son, Jordan Wilson, and wife Heather were unable to attend. The Fortners and Lotters were colleagues of Roger Wilson at C.J. Foods and moved here to work with the Wilsons.
The Ozark County manufacturing business that opened 44 years ago as Bryant Plastics has been purchased by a Nebraska family who will rename the business Wilson Industries, a corporate umbrella that will continue the PVC-pipe-manufacturing side of the business as Wilson Plastics and the freight side as Wilson Freight.
Roger and Sherri Wilson moved here from Lincoln, Nebraska, and took over the operation on Sept. 1 after purchasing the company from long-time owner-operator Ralph Brown. The Wilsons expect all five of their adult children to move here and become involved in operating the business; some are already working here.
Family members include their daughter Kristina Richards, who moved here from St. Louis and is working on the Wilson Freight side of the company. Two other daughters are Savannah Wilson and her fiance Nathan Stuckemeyer from Humbolt, Nebraska, and Mykah Wilson and her fiance Jeremy Moore from Lincoln. Savannah works in IT and sales, Nathan works in maintenance, Mykah works in the plastics-side office and Jeremy is an ops manager.
The Wilsons’ oldest son, Jordan Wilson, and his wife Heather are also expected to join the company in the near future. A second son, Elijah Wilson, is a student at Pittsburgh State University in Kansas. “He’s coming in to help over the holidays,” Sherri Wilson said Sunday.
The Wilsons and their family gathered at the manufacturing plant on Highway 5 north Dec. 11 for what office manager Cindy Winslow called “a surprise open house.” Winslow said the gathering, which included area bankers, attorneys and others who helped facilitate the purchase, was intended by the plant’s employees as a “welcome to the community” event for the Wilsons and also a thank you for continuing the company. The Wilsons were surprised by the arrival of their other children who hadn’t yet moved here.
Bryant Plastics’ beginning
Gainesville native James R. Beasley opened Bryant Plastics in late 1974 in a 40x60-foot steel building on land he leased from J. R. Evans and Glenn Fry. Beasley added a 24-foot extension to the building and said he would employ “about 18 men on four shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” according to a story in the Nov. 7, 1974, edition of the Times. Beasley had previously been employed with a plastic pipe manufacturer in Kansas, the story said.
A year later, the Times reported that the plant was “employing 23 men on a 24-hour schedule, five days a week.”
The story also mentioned W. L. Chalmers of California as “a stockholder with Beasley” when the company started but added that “recently, Chalmer’s interests were purchased by Ralph Brown, Brad Guffey, Larry Luna and Jerry Lyons, all of Gainesville.” Beasley served as president of the corporation, the story said; Brown was vice president.
Two additional buildings had been built, “a 50x100-foot steel-structured warehouse” and a “30x50-foot metal grinding room.” The company’s office was located “in a house just west of the manufacturing complex.” The story also quoted Brown as saying, “There are two private telephone lines with inter-com service between buildings.” It noted that the firm “also owns a delivery truck and a trailer for which a cab is rented” when needed.
Eventually, Ralph Brown and his wife, the late Carryl Brown, bought out the other members of the corporation and also bought the land where the manufacturing facility stands. Brown continued to operate the company, which in recent times has run 24/7, until selling it to the Wilsons, effective Sept. 1. Brown said Sunday he donated the company’s original metal building to the Gainesville ball program as the company evolved into new or remodeled space.
The future of Wilson Industries
Roger and Sherri Wilson say they plan to continue growing the company and have already brought in new, more efficient equipment. Sherri Wilson has previously owned a couple of small businesses in Nebraska, she said, and Roger Wilson brought with him two former colleagues at C. J. Foods, a pet food manufacturer with facilities in Nebraska and Kansas. One of those colleagues, Brandon Lotter, is vice president of operations, and the other, Trent Fortner, is vice president of engineering. Both men moved here with their families, and their children are enrolled in Gainesville schools, a family member said. Kristina Wilson Richards’ daughter is enrolled in school in Ava.
Although the Wilsons moved here from Lincoln, the state’s capital city with about 285,000 people, Roger and Sherri say they’re small-town natives. They went to kindergarten together in Weeping Water, Nebraska, a town of about a thousand people located 30 miles east of Lincoln. And each was the only person the other ever dated before they married in 1984, they said.
Roger also said he believes he may have a family connection to the Ozarks. “We believe my grandfather may have come from this area when he came to Nebraska in 1920,” he said. “He traded a team of 20 mules for 160 acres and settled in closer to Omaha. His name was Edward Levi Wilson, and we’re trying to validate where he was in Missouri.”