Last September, the world’s oldest duck decoy manufacturer announced plans to move operations to Arkansas from Oklahoma. G&H Decoys, founded in 1934 in Henrietta, Oklahoma, was going through a bankruptcy sale just a few months prior, until the men behind Five Rivers Plastic Manufacturing gave it new life.
Rob Hansen, Brent Sawyer and Andrew Holman took a risk last year when they purchased G&H, a brand built on a “Made in the USA” philosophy, with a 90-year history of excellence. The three partners and sportsmen, all from Louisiana, are hoping the relocation will strengthen the company.
Tariffs aren’t hurting either, since G&H’s decoys are all still made in America, with domestic materials.
Making the Move
John J. Gazalski made his first duck decoy in 1934 amid new restrictions on the use of living ducks as decoys. The practice was fully banned in 1935, and by 1940, the demand for Gazalski’s handcrafted shell decoys was great enough that he obtained a patent and real estate to expand operations in partnership with his father-in-law, J.V. Hutton. In 1956, the G&H Decoy Manufacturing Co. began making plastic decoys and expanded their products to include floating decoys shortly after.
In February 2024, the Great American Decoy Co., G&H Decoy’s parent company, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Hansen and Sawyer, who at the time were making business plans of their own for a venture in Arkansas, had heard rumors about the possible bankruptcy and quickly jumped at the chance to purchase the brand when the company filed.
“We had already started planning and had a concept,” says Sawyer, general manager of G&H. “We got the keys on August 8; we walked in this big, 110,000 SF factory in Henrietta, Oklahoma, and we had 60 days to be out of that building and move everything to Arkansas.”
Online waterfowling forums are filled with self-described “G&H disciples” recounting the 30-plus year lifespans of decoys purchased new, sometimes handed down through generations. Sawyer says G&H set the standard for American-made duck decoys.
“Our customers expect the best. They’ve expected the best since 1934, and we are trying our best to live up to that. So if it’s not perfect, it doesn’t go in a box,” Sawyer says.
Five Rivers Plastic Manufacturing has so far invested $2.1 million in the company, between the purchase of the brand, the move to Arkansas and re-starting operations.
Taking Flight
The move to Arkansas hasn’t been easy; really, it’s still in progress, as the company’s current location, at a Walmart supercenter in Corning that had been sitting empty since 2018, doesn’t have sufficient space or power for all of the manufacturing equipment needed to produce new duck decoys.
“The city of Corning has been phenomenal,” Sawyer says. “They allowed us to buy this building for a really fair price and helped us with some infrastructure and that startup phase, where you’re spending money so fast it’s nauseating.
“The downside is we ran out of space quick.”
The group had accounted for that, having also purchased the 7 acres around the Walmart; but supply chain slowdowns meant it would be a year before they could get the electrical components needed to extend power throughout a larger footprint.
“In the meantime, what we’ve done is we’ve found other local plastic manufacturers that have become our friends. We built a network with everybody in the area; we said, ‘together, we’re stronger than we are individually,’” Sawyer says.
Custom-Pak in Walnut Ridge, for example, is molding decoys for G&H, Sawyer says, “and we have expanded our painting department so that we can paint more, and we are working on doing some painting projects for them.”
The painting process is what makes G&H’s decoys stand out. The secret to making the paint stick on the decoys for decades is confidential; it was part of what Five Rivers paid for when it purchased the company.
“It was the durability of the paint that really drew us to it,” Sawyer says. “We’re building our paint line now to make sure that we can continue to offer the best of the best.”
Choosing the ‘Duck Hunting Capital’
Relocating G&H’s headquarters here was a natural decision, Sawyer says: “Arkansas is the … paradise for duck and goose hunting. Arkansas is the waterfowl capital of the world, the duck hunting capital of the world, and northeast Arkansas is the new hub; it’s the bottleneck where everything up north passes through.”
Hansen, G&H’s president, was already established in the state through Leg Iron Outfitters, a guide service he founded in Biggers, about 20 minutes southwest of Corning. His knowledge of state and local economic development goals and incentives helped G&H get established quickly.
“Arkansas is a business-friendly state. It is definitely friendly to the outdoor industry,” Sawyer says. “Manufacturing is a target market for Arkansas. The northeast region of Arkansas, historically, has been kind of a hub for plastic manufacturing facilities.”
By the time the keys were turned over to Five Rivers Plastic Manufacturing back in August 2024, G&H already had a backlog of orders; the company’s online store had continued accepting orders throughout the bankruptcy process.
“We started training our first employees on October 10,” Sawyer says. “We officially opened for sales for Black Friday weekend, but we were producing before that. We probably painted our first sellable product the last week of October.”
The company easily found the manpower needed to staff the site in Arkansas — “I took over 300 applications in a four-hour period” at a job fair, Sawyer says — and trained staff members on the different duck and goose patterns and G&H’s painting techniques. There are approximately 20 employees at the Corning site currently, and Sawyer says he hopes to have 60 painters on staff by the end of the year.
Five Rivers Plastic Manufacturing is also considering purchasing an additional property from which to start some of the company’s molding operations.
Tariff Opportunities
Sawyer is particularly proud of G&H Decoys’ “Made in America” philosophy. He’s optimistic that recent tariff policies will be advantageous for the company, since all its raw materials are sourced in the U.S.
“Because of the tariffs, there’s going to be fewer products in the outdoor industry coming from China this year, and we’re going to be picking up some projects for other companies… We’re being hopeful,” he says.
“The industry left and so did quality livelihoods, so there’s a void there, a struggle. Middle America is poorer without industry; it’s a fact,” he adds. “Now, here’s an opportunity where companies can come back to the U.S.”
How it’s Made: A G&H Duck Decoy
Mix raw materials: The decoys are made primarily from pelletized, recycled plastic. A small percentage of “virgin plastic” — plastic that’s never been used before — is mixed in to improve durability, tensile strength and pliability.
Melt the plastic: The plastic mixture is fed into a heated blow molding extrusion machine, where it’s melted into a “putty-like, stretchy consistency,” according to G&H GM Brent Sawyer. “It heats that plastic to a little bit more viscous than, like, molasses.” The machine extrudes a uniform-walled tube, called a parison, into the two halves of the duck mold.
Cool the mold and trim off excess: The molding machine releases the completed duck decoy, which then cools quickly. Any excess plastic, particularly around the seam created in the manufacturing process, is trimmed off. “Anything that’s waste, anything that we trim off the decoy, any decoy that’s defective, we grind back up and it goes back into the process,” Sawyer says.
Paint and cure: Using a proprietary painting process, workers hand-paint each decoy, with special attention on the pattern and technique. “There’s a science to how decoys are painted. Contrast is key; contrast is what is visible.”
