The story of Eddy West is a challenge to say the least. Many of you know it; some think they know it, and others are afraid to ask. So, to set the record straight, this is a one time account of the legend of Eddy West. First of all let me start by saying, my
last name is Eddy. I am not Eddy West. I am Craig Eddy. My wife's name
is Juli Eddy. We share the same last name as well as the ownership of
this company. For those of you who recognize the last name, yes I am one
of the Eddy's who started Habersham Plantation. No, this company was not
started to be competition with Habersham or under any duress. We all get
along great have family meals together and do Christmas just like any
other normal family. Like any other family we talk about our vocation
and the good times and bad times. It just so happens we are all in the
same business so we can rejoice and cry on each other shoulders with great
gusto or sympathy, whichever the case may be. We feel fortunate to have
our own network and support system within our own family. The retail store that we purchased had always been a Habersham Plantation outlet store. My wife had a background in buying and display and I had the sales experience so we were a good team in maintaining and building the business. We built the business into a million dollar a year retail business. Several years later we were able to buy two other retail outlet stores, which we continued to build. At the onset of the store we started to manufacture pieces just for the store. Since manufacturing is also in my blood it seemed like a natural way to go. The pieces that we manufactured were usually copies of old pieces, only we took it one step further and aged it like an old piece. They sold. They sold well, sometimes within just a day of placing them on the sales floor. We felt ecstatic that we had come up with something that would sell so fast. Of course, you know in your own business that if you have something that sells you get more of it on your floor, and we were no different. We found that we were running a manufacturing plant and three retail stores within no time. As you can imagine, with that came all of the manufacturing responsibility along with the retail requirements. At this time, my youngest and last
daughter was born. Our hats switched and now my wife was traveling since
not all of our stores were in a local area. An employee who had worked
for us from our early start came to us with a proposal to purchase the
stores. She had no children, a lot of energy and the experience we felt
that she could purchase and maintain the business that we had built. So
we jumped at the chance. Just think, no more holiday work. When everyone
else gets to go to the beach, we do too. When everyone else gets to spend
summers with their children, so will we. Life couldn't be much better.
What we failed to figure into the equation was that the stores would not
maintain buying our product. So nine months down the road we have a manufacturing
company with nothing to manufacture. We have employees that have the knowledge
to make and finish the product with nothing to do. Well, as you can imagine
life got a little scary. So we went to the drawing board; the drawing
board being Santa Fe, New Mexico. We had a book that had been a gift to
us from my mother a few years before. A pretty book, some may even think
a coffee table book. But we saw more in it then that. We saw a new company.
The book was about New Mexican furniture. So that is where we went. I
will be forever grateful to the museum director who allowed us to go into
the basement of her Santa Fe museum and look at the hundreds of old pieces.
From studying the old pieces we were able to realize that there was a
warmth and a love and a story behind each and every piece. The marks that
were left behind were history to each piece making it individual and one
of a kind in it's own right. We knew that the history and love could not
be reproduced, but we felt that we could come close to the aging and the
development of the piece. So we left Santa Fe with a new mission. We came
home so excited and refreshed with a new beginning. Our manufacturing
employees had seen many changes. However, when we came home to North Georgia
and told them that we were going to manufacture southwest primitives they
looked at us as if we had been in the southwest mountains too long. To
even further their disbelief we told them we were going to wear it out
and distress it beyond their recognition. I am grateful to them that they
didn't run and hide, but trusted us enough to go forward. |
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