Miller Bee Supply has a rich lineage of family values and hard work. This is a business that was started from the ground up and has never looked back. When Sebert Miller (Presley’s dad) first started making supplies for his self, he had no intentions of turning his hobby into a flourishing business. After a few years, though, he started selling to neighbors and friends. Presley started to help out
his father after school and on weekends in the original shop. In 1976, the year Presley graduated high school, Miller Bee Supply was filed as a business. In 1980 a second shop was built and a third was built in 1988. Presley worked as a carpenter, cabinet maker, and 11 years as a lumber yard manager and a dry kiln operator at American Drew Furniture Company. In 1988 he quit to work full time at Miller Bee Supply. In 1993, Beverly and Presley’s baby girl, Tyler Brooke Miller, was born into the hustle and bustle of growing a business. In the early 1990’s a mite infestation hit the North Carolina area and deviated countless stands of bees. Before they sold about $75,000 worth of merchandise but since no one was buying bee supplies, business fell to about $18,000 a year in sold merchandise. So Presley bought Sebert’s half of the business in October of 1994 for $10,145, to become the sole owner. Frames were bothersome to make in the early days. Presley and Sebert had to cut out every single piece on a table saw, by hand. In 1997, Presley spent $15,000 for motors and steel to build his famous frame making machines that are still used today. Just think about how long that order of 500 frames would take if Presley didn’t have the radical idea to make his own frame machine! When K-Mart closed, Wilkes County lost a great asset, but Miller Bee Supply gained one. A few months before K-Mart closed, Beverly Miller (Presley’s wife) quit her job of office manager after 22 years of service, to work full time with Presley. Her joining also brought the first computer to Miller Bee Supply and because of her experience, instead of writing out sales by hand, everything was computerized. Miller Bee Supply was expanding and quickly outgrowing the tiny old shops. So in 2003, a new warehouse was built to better fit the ever growing business. This was 7,000 square feet of new space to use. A milestone of this size gets bigger, as this was when the manufacturing was moved from 11562 North Highway 16, Millers Creek, to 496 Yellow Banks Rd. North Wilkesboro. This was the first serious step in wholly relocating the business. Finally in September of 2007, the new sales shop, 8,500 square feet, was finished and Miller Bee Supply had a new home. The sales area was moved down off the mountain and ever since, business has took off and continues to soar. Finally in 2008 Miller Bee Supply changed to Miller Bee Supply Inc. when it was incorporated.
