Matthew Barker - Dry Cleaning in his Blood

Anthony's Son and current Managing Director of Barker Group

"I grew up in Dry Cleaning. Modern machinery and legislation have changed things slightly, but the whiff of Perc.* is one of those smells that takes me back to my childhood. The business is in the blood, and I love it. Many people have said that to work in this industry is not just a career, it's a disease and there are few cures. But when my Parents bought the laundry, I thought they were mad. Life changed overnight. The hours were long and took their toll. They started using swear words when talking about work. There was a new language I didn't understand. The only 'overs' and 'shorts' I'd known were in the cricket pavilion after a match, not as a reference to unsatisfactory laundry production. I could only wonder what 'stiff collars' were!"

Matthew continues "I was appalled by the laundry business, it seemed like a daft way to make a living, and I was having nothing to do with it. That was until, in 1989 when I was operating my own company publishing a discount directory. The first Gulf War occurred and oil prices went through the roof. We were plunged into the worst recession for fifty years, I needed cash badly and Dad needed a driver, and that was my entry into the laundry business."

The Barker Group is Born

 

In the last fifteen years, the Barker Laundry has gone from strength to strength. In 2000 Matthew bought the company from his Father, re-branding to Barker Group in 2002. Barker Group consists of four divisions:

Barker Laundry now services more Dry Cleaners than any other laundry in the country as well as providing the much required weekly door-to-door collection and delivery of a domestic laundry service. Back in 1986 Anthony Barker sold the companies dry cleaning interests to Johnson Cleaners UK but in 1995 Barker Dry Cleaning returned to the High Street and now have an expanding chain of cleaners in the Southern Counties. Barker Workwear supplies many of Dorset's workplaces with uniforms, dust control mats and washroom services on a purchase or rental basis, and Barker Collars is the world's largest manufacturer of collars for formal dress wear supplying Royalty, Admiralty, Judiciary and the general public throughout the world.

So what next for the Barker Group? The final word must go to Matthew Barker "I am a Barker and we don't stand still, all I can say is - keep visiting our website for news!"