Father-son duo starts new business venture in Tulsa
TULSA, Okla — The Groblebe family is new to Oklahoma with a mission to spend more time together and start a family venture that could be carried on for years. via @ Amanda Slee / KJRH Channel 2 Oklahoma City
The father-son duo created their business “Fibrenew Green Country.” The father, Travis Groblebe, said, “We do leather, plastic, and vinyl restoration. We’ve worked on cars, furniture, a lot of RV work, and boats.”
After a recent move to the Sooner State, Travis wanted to start some new and challenging work. He also thought this was a perfect way to spend more time with his son Jacob.
“Not many people have a chance to work with their dad like this, so it just seemed like something I should give a shot, and it’s been a lot of fun since I started,” Jacob said.
Along with honing their craft, they are also learning how they mesh together as business partners. Their goal with Fibrenew is to save cherished items, all while saving someone money.
Travis told 2 News, “We keep a lot of stuff out of landfills. That’s one of our selling points. If you can restore it and keep using it for another ten years or whatever, that helps to keep the landfills out.”
They love seeing the customers’ reactions, like when a man in Bixby asked them to restore vinyl in his classic car.
“This Lincoln was immaculate, and he had a spot where the vinyl had cracked on the armrest, and we fixed it for him, and he came out and looked at it, and he was like ‘that’s amazing, thank you so much’,” Travis said.
The father-son duo worked on dozens of projects in their first few months of business, but there’s one thing they haven’t worked on but would like to.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say working in planes is pretty cool. Yeah, we have not had the opportunity to work in an airplane, and I do think that would be pretty cool,” the Groblebes said.
One challenge is maintaining boundaries between family and the business, but they said they’ve got big goals. Eventually, they want Fibrenew to expand so each of them can work independently, allowing them to restore more cherished items for people across Green Country.
You can visit Travis and Jacob’s business at: fibrenew.com/greencountry
To learn more about Fibrenew Franchising, visit: fibrenew.com/franchising
