Matador Gas Buys Ozark Mountain and Action Propane, Pushing Into Northwest Arkansas

The Situation

Bob Jackson died in 2023. This week the propane company he built changed hands. Matador Gas LLC has acquired Ozark Mountain Propane Co. of Garfield, Arkansas, and Action Propane Inc. of Leander, Texas, the buyer said Tuesday in an announcement reported the following morning by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — the only outlet that has covered this deal. No purchase price was reported for either company, and no truck, gallon or customer counts were made public.

The Facts

A family sale, three years after the founder's death Ozark Mountain was family-owned, and the family made the call after Jackson's death. His daughter, Jennifer Stowe, told the Democrat-Gazette why they picked the buyer they picked. "Matador was the only company we seriously considered because we believed they understood the importance of our business and would take the same care in preserving what my father and family created," Stowe said. No distress, no auction — a second-generation family answering a succession question on its own timetable.

The buyer Matador Gas was launched in 2021 by Brandon Annett and Matt Terry, friends since Texas Tech, expressly to buy propane companies and grow them under their existing names. The company lists a Dallas address and describes itself as a full-service Texas propane marketer. It took on outside private-equity capital from the New York firm Firmament in October 2023 and has been acquiring since; its Arkansas site names Texas Star Propane, Mission Gas, Izard County Propane and 4-T Propane among the businesses already under the roof. "Both businesses have built strong reputations through decades of reliable service and longstanding customer relationships," said Rusty Janssen, Matador's chief executive officer, in the announcement. "We look forward to partnering with their teams, preserving the local brands and service models that have made them successful, and providing additional resources to support their continued growth."

What is actually being bought Action Propane has run out of Leander since 1984, serving the Austin area; the company's own site and the Democrat-Gazette both put its record at 40-plus years. Ozark Mountain is the larger piece by geography — Matador's statement puts it at six full-service Arkansas locations serving residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial customers; Ozark Mountain's own website (still live pre-transition) lists five full-service offices plus more than 600 cylinder-exchange locations across Arkansas and southern Missouri. Both counts are sourced; neither publisher has reconciled the other.

What changes on the map Matador was already selling propane in Arkansas before this deal — Matador Gas Arkansas runs out of Atkins, serving Pope, Van Buren, Conway, Yell, Perry and Johnson counties. Garfield sits in Benton County, in the state's northwest corner, so Ozark Mountain stretches Matador from a central-Arkansas base up to the Missouri line. In Texas the effect is denser rather than wider — Leander is Austin's northwest suburban edge.

Business Impact

If you sell propane in Benton County or on Austin's northwest edge, a competitor just got a bigger balance sheet and a stated plan to keep the old name on the door. That second half matters more than the first. A buyer who repaints everything announces itself; a buyer who keeps the nameplate does not. The company you compete with next spring may look identical on the truck and answer to a different dispatch office.

Pricing. Nothing in the announcement addresses price, and nobody should brief a manager on a move that has not happened. Consolidators generally buy a customer book to keep it, which argues against a first-winter price war. Price to your own delivered cost and your own margin discipline, and watch what the acquired locations actually quote in your service area through the first fill cycle rather than what somebody heard at the counter.

Recruiting. Matador has published a commitment to retain employees with minimum re-branding, so do not plan around a wave of loose drivers. Integrations still move people — new dispatch, new routing software, new benefits enrollment, a new name on the paycheck even when the name on the truck stays. If a CDL-with-hazmat driver or a strong CSR in Benton County or around Leander has been on your maybe list for two years, the next two quarters are when that call gets returned. Make the offer specific and honest.

The transition window is when customers look up. Ownership changes reach residential customers as paperwork: a new remit-to address, a different invoice format, a re-enrollment for autopay, a new phone tree, a letter about tank lease or terms. Those are the moments a household that has not thought about its propane supplier in nine years suddenly thinks about it. Presence wins that window — answering on the first ring in September and October, delivering a will-call the next day, having a human return the message.

First 90 days, things worth watching rather than guessing at. Do the local numbers still ring locally, or route to a call center. Do the same drivers appear on the same roads. Do delivery minimums, will-call cutoffs or after-hours service terms change. And watch the cylinder exchange racks — more than 600 Ozark Mountain locations across Arkansas and southern Missouri now sit under a funded owner, and exchange is the easiest piece of an acquired business to standardize first. Those contracts get renegotiated store by store, which is also how they get won.

When your own customers become targets. A buyer with six new Arkansas locations plus a central-Arkansas base has more route density to solve than it had last month. If your book overlaps their map, expect ordinary competitive selling by spring. The defense is unglamorous: know which of your tanks you own and can document, know your renewal dates, and clear any open service complaints before someone else calls on those accounts.

And for owners on the other side of the desk. The Arkansas half of this deal was a succession sale. Jennifer Stowe said the family chose the buyer it believed would take the same care in preserving what her father built. Any owner within a decade of that conversation should note that the standard the seller applied was continuity, and that the buyer's public commitments on legacy, employees and re-branding are now on the record for the industry to grade.

Key Takeaways

• Matador Gas acquired Ozark Mountain Propane Co. (Garfield, Arkansas) and Action Propane Inc. (Leander, Texas) in one announcement, reported August 26, 2026 by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — the only outlet that has covered this deal. No purchase price or equipment counts were disclosed.
• The Arkansas sale followed founder Bob Jackson's 2023 death; his daughter Jennifer Stowe said the family chose Matador specifically to preserve what he built.
• Ozark Mountain's own site lists five full-service Arkansas offices plus 600+ cylinder-exchange stops; Matador's statement to the paper cites six full-service locations. Both figures are sourced and neither has been reconciled.
• Matador was already operating in Arkansas (Matador Gas Arkansas, based in Atkins) before this deal, and has published a commitment to retain employees and minimize re-branding through its acquisitions.

Action Steps

1. 1.Check whether Leander/Austin or Ozark Mountain's Arkansas footprint (Garfield, Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Sheridan, Conway) overlaps your routes or cylinder-exchange accounts.
2. 2.Over the next 90 days, watch whether the acquired locations keep their names, their drivers, and their local phone numbers — that is the real signal on how much is changing.
3. 3.If a strong CDL-plus-hazmat driver or CSR near Benton County or Leander has been on your hiring list, make a specific, honest offer in the next two quarters — that is when integration turnover typically happens.
4. 4.Tighten your own house before spring: confirm which tanks you own and can document, know your renewal dates, and clear any open service complaints before a newly capitalized competitor calls on those accounts.

Competitive Advantage

Matador has now bought at least six named propane companies since 2021 without ever publishing a price, and it has committed in print to keeping local brands and crews in place. The real test is not the announcement — it is 90 days from now: if the trucks in Garfield and Leander still carry their old names and the same drivers are on the same roads, this was a quiet ownership change, not a market disruption. Watch the cylinder-exchange racks in Ozark's territory in the meantime; those are the accounts that move first when ownership does.