Big name clients for whisky barrel minibar firm
A company that specialises in making bespoke mini bars from old whisky barrels is looking to top up orders after securing clients including Outlander actor Sam Heughan and former Scotland rugby captain Greig Laidlaw.
Oak & Black has been created during lockdown by Freddie Main, who was previously a design and technology teacher for more than two decades.
The East Lothian-based company hand-picks the barrels from a cooperage to create a mini bar with a full middle shelf, smart lighting system, and builtin magnetic bottle opener.
Other products made from reclaimed materials include bottle racks, engraved barrel end wall hangers, whisky boards for drams, gin blocks and be spoke products including sign age, tables and coasters for a new coffee company owned by former Scotland International jim hamilton and whisky barrel display planters for Ondine restaurant in Edinburgh.
Before launching the company, Mr Main was also part of the Scotland Touch Senior Mixed World Cup Team. Following the tournament in Malaysia 2019, he contracted an illness that led to post-viral fatigue, which he continues to manage.
During lockdown last year, a period when his energy was beginning to improve, he decided to create a whisky barrel bar for one of his friends, and demand snowballed.
Mr Main, who is also a life coach, said he is very pleased that his new venture is “definitely going in the right direction, especially securing orders for people like Sam Heughan, Jim Hamilton and Cask88, and taking on my first member of staff ”.