50 years and still going strong
From humble beginnings in the corner of a South Canterbury farm in 1969, Barker’s of Geraldine will celebrate 50 years on Saturday. Business reporter Samesh Mohanlall takes a look back at where it all began.
In the same year man first walked on the Moon and supersonic passenger airliner the Concorde made its maiden flight, a humble shop in the corner of a South Canterbury farm made its first sale.
Dedication, innovation and good taste will be celebrated in South Canterbury on Saturday as Barker’s of Geraldine commemorates its 50-year milestone, and its new food store and eatery is officially opened.
From small beginnings in 1969, Barker’s now boasts an extraordinary legacy in the community, employing about 2000 people over the years and recently realising the dream of setting up a showcase bakery and cafe.
The company was founded on the entrepreneurial spirits of Anthony and Gillian Barker based on instinct, ingenuity and hard work, son Michael Barker says.
The Barker’s of Geraldine food processing chairman said the business had been ‘‘one man’s dream to create a cottage industry as a diversification from farming’’.
‘‘It was very tough and we often look back at it and wonder how we survived and it very nearly didn’t, like most small businesses,’’ Michael said of his father’s early venture into winemaking from locally resourced and abundant elderberries 50 years ago.
‘‘But he didn’t really do his market research properly because there wasn’t a massive latent demand for elderberry wine in the community. It was more of a hobby or something that interested him, so there was a learning curve that Anthony Barker evolved from doing something which he had a passion for, to doing to something which consumers wanted.’’
That learning curve also came in the form of good old-fashioned Kiwi ingenuity – Anthony built his first winery using an extraordinary range of repurposed home appliances – two laundry coppers for cooking the wild berries and vacuum cleaners acted as blowers for the diesel burners, Michael said.
It was his mum, Gillian, who took charge of the first Barker’s shop which guided the family business to value the natural ways of rural hospitality – still a core of the business today.
‘‘As Celia, Esther [his sisters] and I grew up, we would take our turn to serve customers, competing with each other to ensure no customer left empty handed.
‘‘Dad had laid a pneumatic strip across the driveway which rang a bell inside the house. Due to the cunning way he laid it on the road, we could tell if the car was coming or going. When 10 or 20 cars arrived in convoy for a group tour, you had to block your ears.
‘‘Thank goodness we were closed on Sundays.’’
The operation then moved on to a business footing, with Anthony appointing a board of directors and ‘‘taking good advice’’.
Barker’s stopped making wines about 20 years ago and became fruit processors, growing its range of products into juice syrups, sauces, preserves, bakery fillings, dressings, chutneys, fruit compotes and spritzers.
‘‘Today we are an overgrown cottage industry. Not long ago we were a cottage industry on the corner of the family farm and now we are an overgrown cottage industry still on the corner of a family farm.
‘‘We are very unique in New Zealand in that we are still on the family farm. Most businesses by now would have moved to Auckland or to where the population base is.’’
About 25 years ago Michael hoped to build a showcase bakery and cafe for the brand in Geraldine but the plan fell through as the family did not have the capital to develop it then.
That vision became a reality last month with the launch of a bakery and eatery behind Geraldine’s former St Mary’s vicarage in Talbot St.
‘‘It has always been a dream; instead of being a store that sells bottles and jars, we have an eatery where we can showcase our product in food. We had to find the right place at the right time.
‘‘When the property came on the market, and 25 years later, we were a bit better funded. We decided there was a great opportunity to finally present Barker’s products in food and showcase and educate people on how to use the products.’’
Michael said many products they make had not been discovered by their customers until the eatery was opened.
‘‘People are finding products that are lost in the portfolio so we are helping people discover all the products we make so it has been a 25-year journey.’’
‘‘We have always had a shop but this is the first time we can showcase our food and the community has responded tremendously well. This food store and eatery has been extraordinarily busy and all credit to the staff.’’
So how would the company’s founders, Anthony and Gillian, have reacted to the modern food store and eatery?
‘‘My parents would have been incredulous. They would not believe what has been achieved.
‘‘They would be very proud we are still on the corner of our old farm; they would be a bit surprised their old bedroom has now been turned into a meeting room and their house is now an office. But if they were to come and see this new food store and eatery they would be gobsmacked quite literally.’’
Michael has had his hands full in the past two years with two other pet projects in the form of a book published to mark the 50th anniversary of the business, and the development of the former St Mary’s Church Vicarage into a boutique accommodation lodge.
‘‘I am very tired and very excited. Obviously for me personally it has taken a year or two taking the idea and turning it into reality.’’
Michael paid tribute to his staff, especially those who have served the company over the years.
‘‘I am no rock star. This was a real team effort.’’
Chief executive Agnes Baekelandt said the staff had grown with the business and it was important to them to train and nurture regional talent.
‘‘Barker’s has had 70 staff members who have worked more than 10 years; that is about onethird of the staff who have worked for over a decade,’’ she said.
‘‘We have a very strict internal promotion policy so every time there is a role open, there is a whole process where we try to fill it internally before looking externally.’’
The company has received anniversary tributes from dignitaries including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Baekelandt said.
‘‘She can’t be there on Saturday but she has sent us a lovely video to wish a happy birthday to Barker’s.’’
Corporate commercial director Nicky Donkers, who has been with the company for 24 years, said the 50th anniversary was a salute to Anthony, Gillian and Michael Barker.
‘‘I can recall the week before Anthony passed away, I actually met with him and he would be very proud and very humbled by this but I doubt at all he would be surprised we have got here.
‘‘The community is also very much a part of our success.’’
Blackcurrant supplier Hamish McFarlane
‘‘I think we started supplying Barker’s in 1981 through my father Don MacFarlane working with Anthony Barker who was Michael’s father,’’ Hamish said.
‘‘It has been a supportive, friendly, respectful relationship. It has been quite a close relationship because of our close proximity to Barker’s. We are only a 10-minute drive and it has been an open door policy between Barker’s to come to the farm and to the factory.
‘‘From the outside looking in, Barker’s have been amazing over the years in engendering a family atmosphere for the workers in a very tightly knit community.
‘‘To be honest it would be a struggle for us to grow blackcurrants if it hadn’t been for the relationship we had with Barker’s over the years.’’
Geraldine High School principal Simon Coleman
‘‘The initiative they have taken to create the eatery and the food store is wonderful and a huge asset for Geraldine, in particular for our local people.
‘‘Obviously they are a major employer for our community and many of our former students are working there and their children come to our school also.
‘‘There is certainly a connection that they have with the community but often for a whole range of their stuff like their support of new initiatives and new things that come along and wanting to be part of the community. We have a connection with them as a school because we have had them come and talk to us about all the things that they do.
‘‘We hope to keep building on that because we are very proactive about trying to have our students connect to what business is really all about.’’
Geraldine councillor Gavin Oliver
‘‘It is an incredible story about how it started and where it is at today. I think that what Michael has achieved over the years and especially with the new cafe now as another arm of the business, it has just really brought people to Geraldine.
‘‘He had a vision with the new cafe and the vicarage and he wanted to showcase the other side of town – the river side and I think he has done an outstanding job.
‘‘I have lived here all my life and I can actually remember as a child I used to pick elderberries and I used to sell them to Barker’s so they could make their elderberry wine, when I was about 11 years old.’’