OAKHURST – All Weather Roofing & Building Supply Co. has a new owner, and he is having fun in his new venture! Barry Shrewsbury invites everyone to stop in on Saturday, Sept. 15, to take the tour.
Since Shrewsbury took over the business on July 20, lots of things are new. The most interesting to many is the fact that every one of his customers gets contractor prices.
“I can also do things like sell half packages. If somebody only really needs half of something, we can split things open and save them some money.”Keeping things local is a real focus of Shrewsbury’s new business plan.
“I must give out 20 or 30 referrals a week on average, and I always refer to local contractors,” he told us. “I want to keep all that money in the local economy.
“I feel a very strong sense of ownership of that. It keeps me going, and it keeps our local folks employed. There’s no reason to go outside the mountain community; there are a lot of talented people up here.”
Shrewsbury developed a love of this business when he did a couple major overhauls of houses in the area, including his own.
“The first was the one that we lived in. Then we bought one as a spec home and re-did it over the winter in Teaford Meadows,” he says. “The first one was pretty overwhelming; the second one I really enjoyed.”
He says the process of being the project manager and dealing with all aspects of the job, even without a contractor background, gave him some good experience, and the desire to work in the building industry.
“When this business came available, it just hit me right between the eyes. This is what I want to do! I was down here in a heartbeat talking to the owner, and we were in escrow pretty quickly after that. So I love it, my wife Nina loves it, and I’m in heaven. We really have hit our mark.”
The most interesting part of this tale may be the fact that Shrewsbury has been a swim instructor for the past 20 years. Splitting his time between his “Curious Dolphin Swim School” here in the mountain area, and teaching in the Los Angeles area, he decided he just couldn’t do it anymore.
“It was time. I’ve probably taught some 1,200 kids to swim in the past 20 years, but I wanted something different. I said to myself ‘I’m 53 years old and I can’t keep doing this much longer!'” Shrewsbury says.
So while pondering what his next step might be, he came across this opportunity. Now he is living his passion, running his own business, and the best part for him – making decisions everyday about how to best serve the builders and homeowners in the area.
“I keep adding new product lines all the time,” he says. “We mainly do roofing, drywall, insulation, your basic building supplies. But since I’ve taken over the business, we’ve added redwood decking, OSB delivered to the jobsite, tarps, and fencing. I even sold a septic tank last week!”
He tells us that the addition of all these new products is the result of just talking to people who come by.
“What I enjoy most is just making inroads with a population that I’d never met up here before. Making connections with homeowners in the area. I get a couple people every day who come in and say ‘I didn’t know you were here.’ And they come back, because with the pricing and the inventory, they realize they can save money shopping here.”
Barry and his daughter, Sophia, come to work together every day at 6:30 a.m. When Sophia is not in school, she is working with her dad in the shop, “doing the little things so I can do the big things,” he says.
Stop in and meet Barry and his family this Saturday, Sept. 15, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. during their Grand Opening and Open House. “We would love to see you!!”
They’re located at 40148 Enterprise Drive in Oakhurst, near Oakhurst Feed and Sierra Seafood, and they’ll be serving hot dogs, chips, soda, water and candy.
