Dhu C. Thompson: Arkansas Business Hall of Fame

Dhu C. Thompson was born in September 1952 in Monroe, Louisiana, to a district judge and a high school English teacher. After earning a bachelor’s degree at Northeast Louisiana University (now University of Louisiana Monroe), he attended Louisiana State University’s Graduate School of Banking in Baton Rouge.

Thompson entered a management training program at a local bank, where he launched a successful 18-year banking career. By age 43, he was vice president and head of private banking for Bank One in Monroe. As banks were realizing an unprecedented number of mergers in the 1990s, he was ready for a new pursuit.

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His love of entrepreneurship, nature and conservation led Thompson to purchase Delta Plastics, an agricultural plastics company in Stuttgart, Arkansas, in 1996. Armed with his background in banking, business and plastics, he has turned one facility into a multinational organization and the leading polytube manufacturer in the world. To help preserve the environment, Delta Plastics recycles polytubing via on-farm collections or free drop-offs at collection sites.

In 1998, he created U.S. Irrigation Distributors, a wholesale supplier of irrigation equipment that is now the largest wholesale supplier of irrigation equipment in the region. In 2010, Revolution Bag was founded to manufacture EPA-compliant trash can liners from recycled plastic. Created by Delta Plastics, a patented cleaning process transforms polyethylene, including polytube, pond liners, silage bags, silage bunker cover sheeting and construction or greenhouse film into Revolution Bag liners. The process converts post-consumer resin into Scientific Certification Systems certified recycled materials for Revolution Bag liners and other materials.

Delta Plastics is a member of the Agricultural Council of Arkansas, Arkansas Recycling Coalition, Delta Council, Delta Wildlife and the Irrigation Association. Thompson serves on the Nature Conservancy Board of Directors and is the former chairman. He is a trap shooting coach for Pulaski Academy and formerly served on its Board of Directors. He also served on the lberia Bank Arkansas Board of Advisors.

Thompson has been recognized as Executive of the Year by Arkansas Business and named Small Business Person of the Year and Recycler of the Year for Arkansas. He received the Crystal Award of Excellence from the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. Twice, he has been named Corporate Conservationist of the Year by the Arkansas Wildlife Environmental Federation. He supports the Governor’s Cup in Arkansas and the Pelican Cup in Louisiana, two entrepreneurial competitions.  

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