Barker Group, Dorset - The Early Years

The Barker dry cleaning heritage goes back to Ken 'Rab' Barker, who started dry cleaning in the 1940's, and it would be true to say that without his influence the industry might well look very different today.

 Ken Barker set out to be, and was trained as, a land agent in Kent but the recession in the 30's changed all that and he joined the Ford Motor Company working for Lord Perry, where he became involved in the introduction of the first V8 Fords into the UK. It was endeavouring to sell Walter Knight one of these that bought them together.

Walter Knight, having returned from Kenya, a white hunter with a wife homesick for England, had to find a new career, Dry Cleaning and with Castle Cleaners of Hadleigh in Essex he needed a works manager and fellow Director. Ken having contracted TB in the 20's was exempt from military service and was thus able to operate the business during the war years, weekending as a member of Dad's Army - The Home Guard.

With military contracts and clothes rationing the business thrived. The Dying business, in particular, boomed, as more and more clothing needed to be dyed black with so many relatives loosing loved ones during the War. These Wartime profits allowed them to buy Collins Cleaners of Bexleyheath, Armfield and Son's Ltd, an old established Cleaners and Dyers and Household Services, a carpet cleaning business in Welwyn Garden City.

The First Step on the Cleaning Ladder

In 1947 Ken liked the business so much, he bought the company and moved his offices to Bexleyheath from where he built the business through the late forties and early fifties. By 1958 Collins Cleaners had some 40 shops and three factories.

Ken's sons, Anthony and David, having completed National Service in the Army, both joined Armfield & Son's Ltd. In the mid 1950's. In 1959 Ken became President of the National Federation of Dyers and Cleaners. This organisation was, in 1967 to become the ABLC and in 1989, the TSA. 

The Sale of Quality Cleaners to Sketchley Dry Cleaners

In 1960 Ken Barker sold Collins Cleaners to the 1940 Group of companies run by the Pickles Family. The 1940 Group was later sold to Sketchley's. Shortly after this Ken became Deputy Chairman of Quality Cleaners of Worcester and finally retired when he brokered the deal that was to see Sketchley Dry Cleaners double in size with the purchase of Quality Cleaners. At that time more than half the Sketchley branches had been created by Ken Barker.

Read more of Barker Group's history here