American Made Silks

Name: Mike Mckenzie, owner of American Made Silks

Location: Gurdon, Arkansas

Goal Areas: Jobs

With a successful business plan, quality products, and a national customer base, American Made Silks could have made their home anywhere. Yet for the past 25 years, they have stayed true to their roots by producing some of the nation’s highest quality silk trees, plants, and floral arrangements in Gurdon, Ark. (Pop. 2,150). And the reason for it, according to company owner Mike Mckenzie, is simple. It is both a matter of cost and community. Not only is Gurdon an inexpensive place to live, work, and operate a business, but it’s also a place in which you get to know your employees. And that helps build a strong workforce.

The same can be said for Southern Bancorp’s work in rural communities. We believe that to help businesses grow and create jobs, we also need to live, work, and operate our own business there as well. We go where the need exists. That’s how banking relationships are built in rural America, and that’s how rural businesses succeed.