Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88Between Turnrows • 61 Chapter 7 • Armor Seed Armor Seed was built upon the firm foundation of integrity and excellence laid by Sherman Cullum, Linda Cullum and their employees over twenty years of service to the farmers of Northeast Arkansas. Gratitude and compassion were and are the watchwords of the company. “When we started our branded business in 2000, we started with a clean sheet of paper; we didn’t have any baggage. We carved our niche by providing the grower with the right product for the ground that he farmed and telling him how much we appreciated his business,” Kelly Phipps says. “But it takes discipline to continue to do what you need to do when there are roadblocks. When people ask me, ‘Why is the Armor brand what it is today?’ I tell them it’s a combination of time and discipline. If we’re disciplined, and we keep our brand message consistent, there is going to come a day when there is a tipping point where all of the investments we’ve made in our brand begin to pay off and everyone knows what Armor Seed is and what we stand for. But why change the name to Armor Seed? Melissa Powell, Marketing Direc- tor at Armor, remembers, “I asked Kelly why he wanted to use the name ‘Armor’ and he said he wanted something that started with the letter ‘A’ so it would be listed at the top of the trial data alphabetically and imply strength … something solid.” The logo for Cullum Seeds had the appearance of a shield or coat of arms with soybean pods and a rice head on it. The owners of Armor Seed knew they needed a simpler, cleaner logo that would be instantly recognizable while still carrying forward the company’s core values of strength, dependability and honor. A medieval knight’s helmet with the tagline “Start Strong. Plant Armor.” was chosen and bags and merchandise were printed for the company’s first private label product: Armor Wheat. Cullum Seeds logo, 1985, appeared as a shield. The Armor Helmet first appeared as the brand for Armor Wheat. It was later adopted to represent Armor Beans, Armor Corn, Armor Rice and Armor Milo. The icon was designed by Kelly Furr.