One day in the winter of 2013 as we were building the brewery Henry said to me “We need a forklift.” Having never owned a forklift or considered owning a forklift I naïvely asked “Why?”. Very patiently, Henry explained that to get pallets of things like bottles and malt OFF trucks and to get pallets of beer ON trucks we needed something to lift them.
I responded with a phrase that Henry has heard me say probably a million times since then: “How much will THAT cost?”.
We had neglected to budget for a forklift in the business plan (one of many things that we had neglected to budget for, I might add). So I gave Henry a very small forklift allowance and sent him on a mission to find a used one somewhere. After a few weeks he sent me a picture of one he assured me was in our price range. It was a beater for sure, but it was Boxing Rock ORANGE. So that sealed it.
Like many things in the brewery that I thought would only last a year or two, that forklift is STILL with us after 10 years. Both Henry and I have used it as a desk while brewing (the seat is almost the exact right height to be a standup desk). Many a toddler has posed for a picture while pretending to drive it. And whenever someone loses a phone or a tool in the brewery it can almost always be found on the forklift. Don’t ask me why.
Want to know the best part about the orange forklift? Ten years on and I still don’t know how to drive it. I can honestly say I’ve done every other job in this company, except drive the forklift. You have to draw the line somewhere when you own a small business. When Henry learns to make the production calendar I’ll think about learning to drive the forklift…maybe.