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Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
The evolution of a family business
MORDEN — Prairie Barnwood Ltd. may be a small furniture operation in southern Manitoba's Pembina Valley but when owner Blayne Wyton was thinking about changing the company's focus, he looked to a Japanese conglomerate and an Italian sports car business for encouragement. Before Sony was known for audio and video equipment, its first product was an electric rice cooker; and before Ferruccio Lamborghini turned his attention to luxury automobiles, he made tractors. To Wyton, those shifts seemed much greater than the one he was contemplating and ultimately chose to pursue. If they could evolve and find success, maybe he could, too. At the end of May, Wyton announced in an open letter to customers that after almost two decades, Prairie Barnwood was stepping away from offering made-to-order furniture handcrafted using predominantly reclaimed wood. More recently, he's publicized the company's new focus: crafting a line of architectural features that includes shelves, mantels and ceiling beams. It's a new direction but it will maintain the same look and feel that Prairie Barnwood customers have come to love. Sitting in the studio of his shop, located about 90 minutes southwest of Winnipeg in the Morden Industrial Park, Wyton explains that the rising price of materials and the uncertainty surrounding United States President Donald Trump's tariffs factored into the decision. The tattooed and bearded businessman names white oak, a species of wood he used to purchase from the U.S., as one example. In 2019, it cost $4 per board foot (a board foot is one foot square by an inch thick). Today, it's $19. The cost of shipping has quadrupled in recent years too, Wyton says. These financial realities caused the 46-year-old and his wife and business partner, Tara, to take a hard look at what they love doing and make a decision about how to move forward. Deciding to step away from making furniture, Wyton says, was 'horrific.' 'We built furniture for 18 years and kind of even raised our family with this business,' says Wyton, who has three children. (The eldest, Natalya, handles the company's online presence.) 'I didn't think it would be that emotional making the shift and adjustment,' he says. 'It kind of came to the surface just how invested we were emotionally and mentally into each job, and making sure customers were happy and got what they wanted.' Making the decision to evolve the company's focus was difficult, but Wyton says he found joy in the idea as he read about businesses like Sony and Lamborghini. It's not the first time his life has changed course. Wyton was born in Edmonton and raised 20 minutes east of the city in Sherwood Park, Alta. As a teenager, he worked for his grandfather's company, which manufactured nylon tow ropes for the oil fields. He met Tara in college and the couple were married in 1999. The next year, they moved to Morden, where Tara grew up. In 2001, Wyton started an antique refurbishing business. Seven years later, while driving through southern Ontario, he was inspired to start a company that would create brand-new furniture using wood reclaimed from old barns. He got started that year, officially incorporating the business two years later. As he was starting Prairie Barnwood, he thought about how every customer at his antique refurbishing business had a story about the piece they brought in. 'When I had the opportunity to get into furniture I (thought), 'I want to build stuff that will have that ability to last long enough for a story to be told about it,'' he recalls. Wyton set up shop in an old chicken barn and got to work building tables, chairs and dressers using wood from barns in the Pembina Valley and southern Ontario. They were built anywhere from the 1850s to the 1930s. In 2017, the Wytons purchased a one acre piece of property and built Prairie Barnwood's current headquarters, a 6,000-square-foot building that includes a workshop, studio and showroom. Over the years, Prairie Barnwood employees have dismantled more than 20 barns and used them to create thousands of pieces of furniture. The company has sold furniture as far away as Norway. In Canada, it sells products from coast to coast (though Wyton estimates that 70 per cent of Prairie Barnwood's sales are in Manitoba). Jackie Kagan discovered Prairie Barnwood online in 2019 and hired Wyton to refinish a maple dresser. The Winnipeg resident was so impressed with the company's work that she and her husband hired Prairie Barnwood to build numerous custom pieces for their cottage at Falcon Lake. Between a mantel, bathroom vanities, shelving, countertops and a dining table that seats at least a dozen people, there's Prairie Barnwood furniture in just about every room. Each piece was custom-designed to fit the Kagan family's space and style. 'Blayne and Tara were incredible to work with,' Kagan says. 'Their attention to detail, craftsmanship and genuine passion made the entire process seamless. It was such a rewarding experience to work with a local company that takes so much pride in what they do.' Greg and Shannon Griffiths had a similar experience when they hired Prairie Barnwood to build custom furniture for their home in Winnipeg's Whyte Ridge neighbourhood. When the Griffiths put the house on the market a few years later, the eventual buyers loved the pieces so much that they included them in their purchase offer. The Griffiths subsequently hired Prairie Barnwood to build furniture for their current home in Charleswood. 'We're just super impressed by Blayne and his attention to detail,' Greg says. 'His ability (to understand) the environment we were trying to create in the house… was exceptional. He just nailed it.' Wyton is looking forward to delivering that same attention to detail and focus on customer service with Prairie Barnwood's new line of architectural features. The company has always existed to craft beautiful pieces that will add value to a home and become part of a family's life. Prairie Barnwood's employees still get to do that now — it's just that instead of doing it with $10,000 dining sets, they're doing it with $300 shelves. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'We get to help more people and be part of their homes,' Wyton says. 'That (is) exciting.' In the coming weeks, the Wytons will host a grand re-opening event that will allow the community to help them celebrate the latest evolution of Prairie Barnwood. (Stay tuned to social media for details.) In the meantime, people can already stop by the studio at 445 Jefferson St. to see the company's new products. The site is also now home to Hope Re:news, a Canadian charity started by the Wytons' relatives that benefits people on the Greek island of Lesvos. When he considers what his life might have been like if he hadn't moved to the Pembina Valley, Wyton gets choked up. Without his wife and the community he's now a part of, he says, he wouldn't be the person he is today. 'The simplicity of Morden and the quality of life that it's given us as a family has been life-changing,' he says. 'I think it's given us a bigger purpose than just working to accumulate or working to make money.' Aaron EppReporter Aaron Epp reports on business for the Free Press. After freelancing for the paper for a decade, he joined the staff full-time in 2024. He was previously the associate editor at Canadian Mennonite. Read more about Aaron. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
13-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Calgary considering micro-tunnelling option to make water feeder main more reliable
The city is exploring a preferred option to make repairs to the Bearspaw south feeder main that would involve micro-tunnelling to build a parallel pipe, after last summer's emergency water restrictions. Councillors on the city's infrastructure and planning committee heard Tuesday about the plan as a way to make the Bearspaw south feeder main more reliable. Administration expects the micro-tunnelling plan would minimize the disruption to Calgary's water use, and minimize service outages. The construction would be on a maximum length of five kilometres, for a section of the pipe built using prestressed concrete. The plan would involve building a parallel pipe to create redundancy, allowing needed repairs to be done on the current feeder main. It would also ensure that if future service is needed on that section of pipe, the city's water service won't be as severely disrupted. The plan fits the the city's criteria to minimize impact and service disruption on Calgarians, said Steve Wyton, the city's manager for asset management and planning. But he added the plan will still require some surface work, leading to disruption. "Micro-tunnelling is an option that really does fit that bill. It will still require some sort of surface work where we will have to dig down to allow the micro-tunnelling work to occur, so there will be some service disruption to the travelling public that we would anticipate," Wyton said. The exact cost and duration of the project is still being finalized, but city administration told councillors that construction could begin by the end of this year. City administration's report adds that challenges like population growth that's increasing demand leads to a greater need for system redundancy to make it more reliable. Other infrastructure projects are underway, such as planning a new water treatment plant, expanding the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant, as well as three major feeder main projects. Wyton added an alternative plan to install a liner inside the feeder main, rather than the micro-tunnelling option, was considered. But it would need larger holes to be dug, leading to more significant disruption and multiple service outages over a longer period of time. The preferred plan follows a report in December that found several failure mechanisms, including microcracks along the pipe and surrounding soil conditions, that led to the Bearspaw south feeder main's deterioration and eventual rupture. The 11-kilometre pipe, which was built in 1975, distributes the majority of Calgary's treated water. Its catastrophic break in June led to a local state of emergency and various levels of water restrictions for Calgary and surrounding communities throughout the summer. Coun. Sonya Sharp said she's concerned that when council tells Calgarians there's going to be disruptions that affect water, it will create stress after last summer's emergency — especially in Bowness and Montgomery, areas she represents that were hit especially hard by water restrictions. Sharp noted a more proactive communication strategy with the city's businesses and residents should help alleviate some of that stress. The preferred micro-tunnelling option is the least disruptive option for the city that's on the table, the Ward 1 councillor noted. While it will be a pricey strategy, it would cost more the longer it's put off, and large expenses such as this project have been repeatedly deferred in the past, which can lead to emergencies like last year's water main failure. "When I see the prices and when I look at everything that's happening, everything is catching up to us. For the last decade, it's been deferred, deferred, deferred, and not been probably a top priority," Sharp said. Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong noted the option administration presented is the least disruptive approach. But he added the presented timeline to begin work by the end of this year presents a significant test given the amount of work the city faces. "Considering they want to have plans for design by summertime, and into the ground by the fourth quarter of 2025, there's going to be a lot of pressure in 2026 to get it all completed," Wong said. "If they can get it done? Great. Does it push into 2027? Possible." Wong and Wyton added it's unclear what effect a potential trade war between the U.S. and Canada would have on increasing the cost of construction materials.
