Craft
4 stories filed under Craft.
Craft
The apprentice who bought the workshop
Eli Nakamura swept the floor at Brenner Woodwork for two years before he was allowed to cut anything. Nine years later he bought the place from the man who hired him — on a handshake, then on paper.
Craft
Heritage brands, new hands: apprenticeships as succession plans
Craft owners in their late sixties are handing companies to the people who swept their floors, and structuring it as a sale. The maths is worse than private equity and they’re doing it anyway.
Craft
Eleven years is the strategy
Brackwood took eleven years to reach twenty people, and Martin Oduya is tired of being asked what went wrong. The slowness was not a constraint he suffered. It was the plan, and he can show you the arithmetic.
Craft
Built to be repaired: the return of the spare part
A wall of labelled bins, a published parts list and a $9 grille clip. Some small manufacturers have worked out that the repair is not a cost centre.