Five-Way Concessionaires looking to sell

Brothers Mike and Chris Fortner, owners of Five-Way Concessionaires Inc., have announced plans to sell the business after this year’s Ozark Empire Fair.

The Fortners’ father, Dan Fortner, began the business in 1966, and the company has been the sole provider of year-round concession services at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds ever since.

Mike Fortner said he and his brother have seen the business change since they took over in 1982, when their father became fair manager.

“The fairgrounds used to be a seasonal business, where we worked real hard for eight or nine months and then had a few months off in the wintertime,” Mike Fortner said. “Now it’s every week, weekends, long hours, and we’ve reached a point in our lives where we need to change our priorities a little bit and enjoy life more and not work so hard.”

There is no business broker involved, and Fortner said he and his brother have not set an asking price. Annual revenues have hovered around $900,000 the last five years.

“We’re trying to appraise it ourselves; we may bring in someone who’s familiar with the equipment and let them go through and assess the value of the equipment,” Fortner said. “We hope to set a price in the next couple of weeks.”

The sale includes all of Five-Way Concessionaires’ year-round operations and its eight fully operational concession stands around the grounds. The buyer also will receive company records, including lists of events and staffing requirements for each.

The company also has several stands at the annual Ozark Empire Fair, though Fortner said those operations are not part of the sale.

“We’re going to keep some of our fair stands, like the root beer stand that we’ve had since the early 1960s, even before Five-Way started,” he said. “That’s been in our family, and it’s got some tradition. So we’re keeping them, and we’ve also got the Pineapple Whip, and we’ll continue to run that.”

The Fortners employ four full-time and also rely on part-time employees, hired on an event-by-event basis. It would be up to the new owner to keep the staff in place.

The Fortners hope to have a deal completed by the end of the year.

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