Company: Herring Outdoor, LLC.

Market: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana

Headquarters: 525 Central Avenue, 200, Laurel, Mississippi, 39440

Phone: 601-498-4600

Herring Outdoor is a private family owned company based in Laurel, Mississippi.  Herring owns and manages billboard locations in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The company is an operator associate in the IBOUSA.   The company also provides signage for sports fields.  Insider talked with owner Mark Herring.

Mark, what’s new since we talked last?

• On the road today in development of a couple of new sites in North Mississippi.  It’s a market that our customers continue to demand our new inventory and we are eager to grow with that demand.
• On the digital front, we are installing two new faces in the 2nd quarter of this year. We are excited to add the inventory, of which some is pre booked, and look forward to opportunity in the long run.
• In cap ex, we have continued to upgrade our light fixtures to Holophane LED fixtures.  We tried other brands but Holophane/PanelVue HID’s won in the end.  Also, upgrading our safety features on catwalks/ladders and with spring’s warm weather approaching we are painting our structures as needed.
• Grow, stabilize and grow again continues to be our motto

Mark, how did you enter the out of home business?

Straight out of college with a marketing degree, I was blessed to have been hired as a market manager for Headrick Outdoor which eventually was bought out by Lamar.  Headrick Outdoor was a great place to work and learn all aspects of market development.  Richard Headrick instilled a great amount of entrepreneurism in Market Managers and I was fortunate to be able to learn my role every day.  However, Lamar made the acquisition and I found myself laid off.  So, I got up, dusted myself off and made lemonade out of the lemons and started my own company.  21 years later, we are still a humble, family owned company providing the best locations and best service in the industry.

Tell us about your plant.

Mainly static Interstate locations within Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

What’s the sports field sign business like?

The sport venue business allows us market share inside municipalities which restrict new billboards.  It’s vertical integration of our business that has allowed profitable growth over the last 10 years.  Colleges, High Schools and Municipal complexes are great venues to expand our customer’s media mix.

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