Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike and Carole Evans.
Hi Mike and Carole, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Mike and our son Shawnn wanted to make wine again. We all talked about how nice it would be to have some proper equipment of our own to make our own winemaking easier. Shawnn was working harvest at that time in Paso Robles and said they were selling wine barrels. So, the idea was born to buy and resell retired wine barrels to fund the purchasing of this equipment.
Much to our surprise, there was a demand for the barrels! So, we kept buying more barrels and selling them out. Soon the money was there to buy the equipment and to buy the grapes at the next harvest. Then people started asking if we could build items out of the barrels. Having grown up watching our dads remodel and build furniture out of wood, we tried and found that we could. We were newly retired and had time on our hands. The big question was could this be a business or a fad? After doing this for a year, we decided it could be a business. It soon became a whole family affair with our kids helping us get started. Evans Family Barrels was born.
We started in our front yard, then added a storage unit. As we grew, a year later we moved to a small warehouse, then added another and finally moved into a larger retail store/warehouse. Our customers followed us to all these locations. We started selling to individuals, then businesses and then the entertainment industry. Our barrels have appeared in commercials, TV shows and movies. People asked if we would rent barrels and we decided why not? So we expanded to renting barrels and tabletops. We never anticipated this, but our customers gave us great ideas to meet their needs. We like to tell people that we have the greatest customers.
As we’re getting older and the barrels seem to be getting heavier, we decided to semi retire. So, we scaled the products back, stopped the renting aspect and moved the business back to our home. This allowed our online presence to grow.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We never did any heavy advertising as we were getting a lot of referrals. But two years after we moved into the retail/warehouse unit, COVID hit. The warehouse was actually our escape when people were being told to stay home. As expected, our sales plummeted but the unit rent did not stop. Finances got very tight. We closed down for one month and created a way to keep selling without customer contact. By the 2nd month, our business picked up better than before COVID. We guessed people were at home staring at their yards and decided to landscape/remodel. We were selling more planters and outdoor furniture than before.
Learning how to market and maintaining our website have always been a struggle. We were never into social media but tried different kinds of advertising, much that didn’t show any real results. Our daughter, an expert at marketing and social media, helped when she had time. There was the rise of sales (when she helped) and fall of sales (during the lapse). But we still had enough work to keep both of us busy and sometimes our son.
As parents and new grandparents, we found we wanted to travel, But being tied to a retail store, kept us from it. So we decided that when the lease was up, we’d move the business back home so we could travel more. The challenge there was to fit a 3000 sq ft warehouse into a 400 sq ft garage.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Evans Family Barrels, we’re a family owned and operated small business that specializes in creating beautiful, repurposed wine and whiskey barrels that are transformed into unique custom furniture, décor, functional planters, and much more. For those that are more interested in making their own spirits or wine, we also carry upcycled, reusable and new small whiskey barrels.
Our passion for sustainable design drives us to turn discarded barrels into high-quality, eco-friendly products, each one reflecting craftsmanship and ingenuity, thus keeping them out of landfills.
Our handmade, reclaimed furniture and decor pieces are the perfect choice to add rustic charm to your home or create an inviting outdoor space. From wine barrel cabinets to wine barrel arcade games, every item is a one-of-a-kind creation that tells a story.
We specialize in listening to our customers’ needs and customizing our products to meet them if possible. This allows us to create unique and personalized products. We will even help our DIY customers create their barrel dreams by explaining and giving out tips to working with barrels. Do we sell a cabinet, yes. Have we made maybe 20 different products out of the same cabinet to meet our customer needs, yes! Have we made products that aren’t even on our website, yes! Our 5-star reviews tell us we’re doing it right: high quality, fine attention to detail, and customer satisfaction. We ship to the lower 48 contiguous states and sometimes we make exceptions to ship elsewhere.
What were you like growing up?
Mike – When growing up, I was very inquisitive and always asking ‘how does this work?” At school, I took wood shop, plastic shop and metal shop. I also played the accordion and later gave lessons. I was interested in engineering projects, building things and repairing things, especially electronics. One thing I remember building was a metal detector to use while scuba diving.
Carole – I was very shy as a kid. I played the clarinet in 2 marching bands and at school. I loved helping my Dad paint and build bookshelves, which he did for many of their friends. In junior high, I was greatly disappointed that I couldn’t take wood shop because I was a girl and had to take home economics
Pricing:
- First time customers get 10% off on our website by entering the code ‘welcome10’
- We offer ‘Free Local Pickup’ for customers in the area to save on shipping
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.EvansFamilyBarrels.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evansfamilybarrels/
