West Virginia Great Barrel Company

The story of the West Virginia Great Barrel Company begins not with a business plan, but with a natural disaster. In June 2016, a massive flood devastated White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. In the aftermath, a group of civic-minded residents, including Tom Crabtree, focused first on rebuilding homes. Soon after, they realized that for the community to truly recover, it needed jobs. The idea for a barrel company came from a chance encounter. Crabtree was at a dinner next to a founder of Smooth Ambler Spirits, who mentioned the struggle to source enough barrels despite the abundance of high-quality white oak in West Virginia's forests. The wood was being shipped out of state, made into barrels, and then sold back to local distilleries. This conversation sparked the playbook: build a technologically advanced cooperage to create local jobs and add value to a plentiful local resource. Founded in 2017, the company secured initial funding through a $6 million loan from the West Virginia Economic Development Authority, another $6 million from banks, and private investment, for a total of over $30 million. The company focused on innovation from the start, using robotics and precision technology, like infrared toasting, to create consistent, high-quality barrels. This tech-forward approach was designed to maximize safety and to compete by minimizing the barrel-to-barrel variation often found in the industry. By early 2025, the West Virginia Great Barrel Company had invested over $83 million and received further loans to support its growth, aiming to retain 230 employees and add 30 more. The company stands as an example of economic revitalization, turning a local resource into a world-class product and creating a new economic anchor for a community that rebuilt itself from the ground up.