Talking rotomolding and rain barrels at the White House

Washington — It's not something Joe Barr ever expected to be doing: answering questions from the president of the United States about his company's rotationally molded rain catcher barrels.

But there he was, improbably, in a hallway in the White House in mid-July, standing next to his 100-gallon sandstone-colored polyethylene barrel and talking with President Donald Trump.

Barr, co-owner of Desert Plastics LLC in Albuquerque, N.M., had been invited to the White House for the July 17 kickoff of Made in America Week.

Desert was New Mexico's representative at the event. In an interview two weeks later, he said he still had absolutely no idea why his small company, with just 11 employees and one ​ Ferry rotomolding machine, got the invitation.

But it was an opportunity, personally and for the business, that he couldn't pass up.

It was all extremely last minute. The White House called Friday, July 14, and, after some initial disbelief for Barr and his colleagues — "we thought it was some come-on to get the owner on the telephone" — the representative for the president asked if Barr could be there Monday morning, with his company's products.

"It comes down to while you're on the phone with those people, you have to make a commitment," Barr said. "We're not even exactly sure, if we're shipping on Friday, who can deliver to a hotel in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. But it's got to be that way."

Shipping a 100-gallon barrel across the country in two days is not easy. It scrambled and found a company guaranteeing Sunday night delivery — for a pricey $2,000.

(It was so expensive, in fact, that Barr said he decided to leave the barrel behind in Washington, giving it to a White House butler who said he'd always wanted one.)

The logistics all worked out, the barrel arrived at the hotel, and three days after the initial call, Barr found himself standing in the East Wing as Trump was being directed down the hall, stopping to talk to various companies.

An aide motioned the president to Barr's table.

"He came over, very cordial person, a little serious," Barr said. "He asked me some questions about it, a minute, a minute and a half.

"Standing there with the president and having a back-and-forth conversation with him was very intriguing," he said. "I'll never forget it, that's for sure."

As Trump, directed by an aide, began to move away, Barr offered an endorsement.

"I said, 'Mr. President, I'm a Vietnam veteran and a business owner, and I want you to know there's an awful lot of us out there that think you're doing a heck of a job and we want to encourage you to continue,'" he said. "He stepped back up and shook my hand one more time and said thank you."

Barr said White House staff made no guarantees about the event, other than that "a lot" of government officials had been invited. The White House press office did not respond to questions about how Desert Plastics was chosen.

"An opportunity to possibly meet any president is something that you have to seriously consider," Barr said. "However, the underlying issue is, is it a good business opportunity? That was a crapshoot at best. They made no promises the president would be there or anyone else for that matter.

"I rolled the dice on this, hoping for the best," he said. "At a personal level, I am not disappointed. On a business level, there has been a fair amount of local media coverage that will most likely prove positive. I hope we will see some national interest also."

Barr's company, which he co-owns with his wife, Marilynn Barr, has an eclectic mix of products. Besides rain barrels, which it markets under the Tijeras brand name, it has a niche business making rotomolded toys for zoo animals, and it does custom manufacturing.

The custom side is about 50 percent of its sales, with the rest split between rain barrels and zoo products, Barr said.

Rain barrels are a natural for Albuquerque's desert climate, where average rainfall is less than nine inches a year. The zoo business, however, began more from happenstance and luck.

About a decade ago, the company was producing a lot more scrap than it should have, and as he was pondering how to solve that, he wondered if the box-shaped leftover pieces could be food or water containers for animals. (The company uses only food-grade polyethylene to make rain barrels.)

So he called the local zoo. The head of the Albuquerque BioPark, Lynn Tupa, looked at the pieces and agreed.

"They took them away. The fantastic lady who's still there, her name is Lynn Tupa, she's still a wonderful, supportive person for us. She said, 'By the way, are you aware that we buy things like this?'" Barr said. "That's when the light bulb went off."

Today the company sells the toys, which it markets under the Wildlife Toy Box brand, to zoos all over the United States.

Zoo toys and rain barrels are niche businesses, but they are a point of pride.

"The people that work here love the idea that we're selling rain barrels, and they love the idea that we get pictures from zoos all over the United States that show our products," Barr said.

"Being an entrepreneur and in a manufacturing environment certainly has its stresses, its good points and bad," he said. "It lessens the impact of the negative side of doing this when you sell things that you really believe in and that you really like."

The White House trip also was a break from the day-to-day stresses. Barr's still hoping the experience has an economic payoff.

He said, for example, his company is looking to partner with other U.S. rotomolders to make its products, since shipping rain barrels is expensive. He hopes the attention helps.

But he also realized at the White House event, surrounded by much larger, better-known companies making things like helicopters, Stetson hats and fire trucks, that it was a unique chance to make a personal plug for truly small businesses.

He spoke briefly with Vice President Mike Pence — Barr told him he was born in Indiana, Pence's home state, and they bonded over that — and he talked with Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta and Scott Pruitt, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"I suddenly became aware that, because we don't have the brand awareness that the bigger guys have, this is a wonderful opportunity to remind our representatives that there are a very large number of small businesses out there who employ a lot of hardworking people with families that make some pretty creative things with lasting value," he said.