The Barker's Story

From around age 12, my two sisters and I were brought up immersed in our family business, which was open 7 days, giving visitors tastes of elderberry and strawberry wines. Our house (now one of the Barker's offices) was about 20 metres from the sampling room, so whenever a carload of visitors arrived we would take turns to greet them and spend at least 30 minutes sampling them up to 20 of our fine wines, aperitifs and liqueurs. Our lifestyle was a lot like running a corner dairy. 

We hardly ever had a family holiday - it was a true family operated cottage industry - but our house was always full of great people who helped out in the winery and shop. All decisions seemed to be made around the kitchen table with 10 to 30 staff being fed morning and afternoon tea and lunch every day. Our staff all became part of the extended family - and that was when the culture of Barker's was born. A culture that we still work hard to retain today, even though the business has long ago outgrown the farmhouse kitchen. It is simply a case of treating all staff as equals. They are all members of our local community, you bump into them in town and at sporting events in the village.

Anthony Barker, my father and founder of the Barker's business, had learnt all the old home preserving arts from his mother while he was growing up on the family farm during the Second World War. An only son, he learned early on to pursue his hobbies and of course he had to help out with the farmhouse chores. Fruit winemaking and preserving became hobbies that he later turned into a family business when the income from his own small farm near Geraldine needed supplementation. The Barker's business has always been founded on innovation and a big dose of necessity. Our first products, elderberry wines - were made from "free" wild berries harvested in the riverbeds. Most of the winemaking plant that my father used was "home-made". Luckily Dad was very clever with his hands and could adapt all sorts of gear to the job in hand. One of his best known innovations wasn't made from fruit at all - it was the first highly efficient totally enclosed wood-burner, for which Kent Heating took out a patent in his name, and that was the birth of the famous Kent log fire, a mode of home heating which was subsequently widely copied and adapted by many other manufacturers.

Like my father, I also went to Lincoln College, but studied Horticulture and after leaving university I planned to do my OE, but the business needed me so I threw in my lot with my father and mother and the rest is history. 40 years on and we are still located on a corner of the old family farm, 10km from Geraldine, but Barker's is a very much larger business, New Zealand's leader in fruit preserving.

Barker's continues to grow and in 2007 we welcomed the Anathoth jam and pickle brand into the Barker's family. When the previous owners of Anathoth approached us, we could immediately see the benefits of bringing these two iconic South Island companies together, and so it transpired that Barker's built a dedicated new Anathoth factory at Geraldine and Anathoth shifted in during April 2008. Anathoth's success has been based on authentic home-made style recipes using small-batch production and a "New Zealand fruit first" policy and we continue to make Anathoth jams and pickles in this traditional way. Barker's has always been a strong supporter of New Zealand growers and buying local fruit has always been a priority for us. Our jam range uses apricots and plums from Central Otago; raspberries and boysenberries from Nelson; blackcurrants from Canterbury; blackberries from Levin; citrus fruits from Poverty Bay and strawberries from even further North.

Another exciting development in 2008 introduced Barker's to the spices of India. Anup and Sadhana Nathu founded the Tandoori Palace restaurants in New Zealand some 18 years ago, bringing out Indian chefs to offer an authentic eating experience. Their search for a NZ manufacturer with the skills and expertise to make and market their authentic restaurant sauces to supermarkets throughout New Zealand led them to Barker's and in March 2008, a joint venture was formed.

Now, in October 2009, Barker's is celebrating its 40th anniversary. To mark the occasion, we are updating our name to "Barker's of Geraldine" to better acknowledge our New Zealand heritage and unique location, nestled at the base of the Southern Alps in Geraldine, South Canterbury. New labels for the Barker's of Geraldine range have been crafted, complete with artist-drawn fruit images. Our delicious jam range is the first to feature the new look and  products made with local fruit only now boast a "100% Homegrown New Zealand Fruit" label. We use New Zealand fruit first and foremost, and we want to tell our customers where our fruit comes from.

I am proud to continue the traditions started by my father over 40 years ago. While we have grown significantly, we have held true to the same values my father held dear - integrity, quality and innovation. Our new look reflects those values and our pride in remaining a family-owned New Zealand business. My father was the typical No 8 wire inventor and engineer. That's where we come from - and that's where we are going. That's why we have decided to tell our story on our packaging.

We've put together a short video on the history of Barker's that you might like to watch. Just click here to view

Michael Barker
Managing Director

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