New Horizons set to add center in Rogers, Ark.

Computer learning center will mirror Springfield location and is to open in the summer

by Maria Hoover

Inside Business Editor

mhoover@sbj.net

New Horizons Computer Learning Centers will soon have a location in Rogers, Ark. Tom Dapp, who, with his wife JoAnn, owns the Springfield New Horizons Center at 3330 S. National, Ste. 800, has reached an agreement to lease 6,400 square feet in the Pinnacle Hills development in Rogers. He expects the lease to be signed later this month. The target date for opening the new center is July, he said.

New Horizons will be on the second floor of the six-story J.B. Hunt building, which is adjacent to John Q. Hammons' $40 million Embassy Suites.

While the Rogers center will likely work with some of its neighboring business, it will be a resource for all businesses in the Rogers area.

The Rogers location will be very similar to the Springfield New Horizons, which opened in January 2000 after the Dapps were awarded franchise rights for southwest Missouri, including Joplin, by Anaheim, Calif.-based New Horizons. Dapp said there are 168 New Horizons Computer Learning Centers in the United States and 107 abroad.

He was awarded area franchise rights for northwest Arkansas earlier this month.

"That includes 11 counties, so we have the territory south of Fort Smith up to the northeast, including Harrison," he said.

Market segments

Growth in the Rogers area is "tremendous," Dapp said, and he thinks New Horizons will fit in well. The company offers computer training as well as business skills that address management and employee development. The business-skills training was added about a year ago in response to marketplace demands, Dapp said.

"The vast portion of our market is business-to-business," Dapp said.

However, the center does serve individuals who need training or who are pursuing certification.

"We call those individuals the consumer segment of the market, and we are there to meet those needs as well," Dapp said.

He said 95 percent of what New Horizons does is business-to-business in Springfield, and the remainder is serving consumers. He expects a similar breakdown in Rogers.

Fees

New Horizons' fee structure is arranged to meet whatever a customer's needs might be, Dapp said.

"That can be either a single class purchase, or for the entire budgeted needs of the company in any timeframe from one month to a year," Dapp said.

The Springfield center has 12 employees, which is about the same number Dapp expects in Rogers. Also, the Springfield New Horizons is a Microsoft certified technical education center and a Novell training services partner. Such designations must be earned separately for each site, but Dapp expects that the Rogers location will achieve both.

The Rogers center will have four classrooms with 12 computers each, and an additional classroom for business skills learning, Dapp said. All told, he said, the center will have about 60 computers.

Dapp said he'll be spending quite a bit of time in the Rogers area in the coming months, much of it in an effort to let the community know that New Horizons is on its way. But that will be welcome news for some of the people being served by the Springfield center.

"There's a very good market up the entire southern portion (of Missouri) to the Arkansas line, as well as to the Oklahoma and Kansas borders," Dapp said. "We currently have a number of customers (in Springfield) from Arkansas that will be attending the center in Rogers."

Growth

Even as Dapp prepares for the Rogers location, he's keeping his eye on further growth opportunities.

"There were negotiations at the outset to also include Little Rock or the state of Arkansas," Dapp said of his newest franchise rights. "The final decision was made to focus on Rogers and revisit that in another year or year and a half."

In its first year, the Springfield center served about 5,000 individuals. To date, Dapp said, it's served close to 22,000.

While he declined to say what the company's revenues are, he said the Springfield location was just awarded the North American Location of the Year-Mini Market 2003 based on center performance. The company also received that award in 2002. The Springfield center also received New Horizons' 2003 Market Dominator Award, which is based on revenue per PC. Revenue per PC, Dapp said, creates a level playing field for all U.S. centers that compete for the award.

"International Data Corporation has a PC count for each one of the markets, the MSAs," Dapp said. The Springfield New Horizons' revenue per PC ranked No. 1 among all U.S. New Horizons centers. Dapp said there are 258,000 PCs in Southwest Missouri franchise territory.