If you haven’t read it already, check out my story on the latest development involving Sand Creek Post & Beam, the Wayne, Neb.-based maker of kits for old-fashioned barns. The story appeared in print Sunday, but due to a technical issue, was not posted online until today, “Sales aloft”

I first visited owners Len Dickinson and Jule Goeller in October 2006, about two years after they moved from Lincoln to Wayne and launched their business. That story, with the catchy headline “Barn Again, , was awarded a first-place award for business writing the next year in the Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors contest.

A framed copy of that story now hangs in the conference room of Sand Creek’s new offices in downtown Wayne. The company, after outgrowing their cramped leased offices, acquired a former bank and drug store building dating from the turn-of-the-century and extensively renovated it. The interior decor features rustic, rough-cut wood and other materials they use in their business.

Earlier this summer, more than 350 local residents turned out for a BBQ brisket luncheon the company hosted to show off their new digs.

Since my last visit, Sand Creek also has tripled the size of their plant on the east side of Wayne. The company’s barns are now sold in 44 states and counting. The dizzying sales increases from 2005 to 2008 landed the firm on Inc. magazine’s annual list of the 500 fastest-growing, privately-held U.S. businesses.

Tags: barns, economy, kits, Nebraska, old-fashioned, Sand Creek Post & Beam, Wayne

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