Swift Current, Sask. – Irene Friesen wants to see stout blue bins and rusting metal drums replaced with vase-shaped rain barrels in designer colours.
The 37-year-old Swift Current entrepreneur hatched the soon-to-be patented plastic prototype for her Oasis Rain Collection System in 1999, and is now selling a variety of models in major gardening and hardware stores across Canada.
Their appeal is esthetics, beautifying that bland corner of the house by the eavestrough downspout. Their market is the urban homeowner because those outside of cities have more room to hide old pails, buckets and barrels, Friesen said.
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A removable screened metal lid keeps debris and critters out, a valve near the top deals with overflows and a brass spigot near the base serves as the tap.
Priced around $160, the 55-gallon barrels have experienced steady sales since she and business partner Linda Hitchings of Saskatoon began marketing them. Sales have grown from 300 the first year to 580 last year to 1,650 this year.
“At the end of the first year, we had many telling us we had a good thing,” said Friesen.
They have since added eight-gallon barrels, priced around $85. Friesen said tap water is more beneficial for houseplants when left for 24 hours. The water warms and chlorine and other additives evaporate, she said.
She recalled her experience watering 700 trees at her former home near Vanscoy, Sask. The water straight from the well was too cold and shocked the plants.
“We could tell well water was not doing the trick,” she said.
That led her to contemplate designing and marketing rain barrels.
Friesen grew up in rural and small town Saskatchewan before working in real estate, broadcast journalism, landscape design and now, her current business, Gardenware Canada.
“I’m a real talker and seller,” said Friesen, who handles sales, marketing and distribution, while Hitchings manages accounts. They plan to add a third person this fall to run the Swift Current office.
The pair started small, visiting garden centres in the family car with room for only one rain barrel. They flogged their products at garden shows, hauling 50 barrels in a smelly stock trailer, selling them cheap, offering free delivery or giving a few away.
That and advertising in a major gardening magazine has paid dividends, with sales into Home Hardware and Home Depot stores that are expected to double their overall sales for next year.
The barrels are made at plastic plants in Ontario, British Columbia and their original manufacturer in Saskatoon and then shipped to buyers.
Friesen faced numerous business challenges, including initial skepticism among new buyers about the product and its price. Some regions like Ontario and British Columbia warm immediately to it, while others, like dry-as-chalk Medicine Hat or co-op stores in Saskatchewan, are not buying.
Friesen admits it’s a struggle and paycheques are irregular.
Developing a small business can require owners to sacrifice by mortgaging the house or moving to a smaller home, by dipping into savings or getting a second job. Friesen worked for three months counting seeds to get some cash.
“You have to live with being really broke,” she said.
While banks are leery of new businesses and government offers little money, Friesen cited strong support from the Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan. It rewarded Gardenware Canada with the 2001 emerging business award.
Friesen believes in linking with groups like WE, listening to others in business, asking questions and reading business journals.
“We are so ordinary, Linda and I, but we kind of got our guts together and did this, and are fueled to keep going by little successes,” she said. Of the skepticism to new products and small companies, Friesen added: “It’s so much fun to prove people wrong.”
