Old whiskey barrels take Northampton couple from rock bottom to successful new business owners

A Northampton couple went from rock bottom at the start of the coronavirus pandemic to feeling excited about the future all thanks to old whiskey barrels.

Dave Brailsford and Joanna Pichurska invested in a pallet of Scottish barrels to be sold as planters with their rent money as the former lost all of his work through Covid-19.

Demand soared as people stuck at home during the lockdown wanted to spruce up their gardens as the Wootton pair delivered across the county and to Milton Keynes for free.

Now customers are using them for Christmas trees and Dave is working on a website and Amazon page to take their product nationwide.

Dave, 40, said: "The best thing that has come out of it is how we went from a really, really low point to being positive about next year as we managed to get through that period.

"At one point we didn't know how we would survive this or where we would get the money from but now there's so much that's driving us for next year as this is not just for lockdown, we're going to pursue this."

Dave's work as a self-employed manager of a site that assembled office cabinets dried up as people were told to work from home in March while Joanna's hours at a Brackmills warehouse also reduced.

On top of the financial worries, Dave was initially unable to see his two daughters who live with their mother in Manchester, which only added to his struggles.

The idea to sell disused whiskey barrels came 'as they felt like their world was crashing down around them' and after some research, they gambled on a pallet to test the waters.

Dave said: "We decided we had nothing to lose. We advertised these before we even had them and they sold so fast on pre-order that we ordered more straight afterwards.

"We delivered our first set of barrels to many happy customers, contact-free obviously, and the demand appeared to be there and spread by word of mouth."

Delivering the barrels during the first lockdown gave both the couple and the customers a chance for some brief human interaction.

Many shared personal stories about their purchases with some planting trees or plants in memory of loved ones or to mark a recent death in the family.

Dave and Joanna, 33, kept selling them over the summer and into autumn with enough demand to have their own unit with plans to expand and potentially hire employees.

Christmas has brought more opportunities as well as their own gift cards, while the pair are still doing the deliveries themselves.

"We have thanked our customers several times personally through our Facebook community for their part in our positive outcome to what has been the most challenging times of most of our lives," Dave said.

"We have our 2021 planned out and hope that everyone will find strength and positivity to look forward to the year ahead."

For more information, visit facebook.com/whiskeybarrelplanters.