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Milestones: Barker Speciality
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Business New Haven
11/24/2003
By: Mimi Houston
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Barker Speciality
Owners: Herb & Gloria Barker, Gerry Barker, president
Address: 27 Realty Drive, Cheshire, CT 06410
Telephone: 203-272-2222
Web: www.barkerspecialty.com
Milestone: 50 years
As a young couple embarking on a new business venture in the early 1950s, Herb and Gloria Barker had little idea where their efforts would lead them. They had a vision, a dream - and lots of ceramic salt and pepper shakers. But as they mark their golden anniversary this year, Barker Specialties has surpassed even their loftiest aspirations.
"In 1953 when they started their souvenir business, they were selling salt and pepper shakers with the names of resort towns up and down the East Coast," says Gerry Barker, company president and one of four Barker children - all of whom are now involved in the family business. "More and more their customers would ask for other customized products like T-shirts, and they learned how to create the products to fulfill each need.
As the years went by and the company's product lines grew, even the Barkers could not have imagined the $25 million business that exists today.
"In the beginning, they were struggling," says Barker of his parents. "If they didn't sell enough of their product one day, they'd spend the night sleeping in their car. If they did sell enough, it meant they could sleep in a hotel room."
These many years later, the Barkers' business little resembles the early days of promotional marketing. The company customizes and sells everything from coffee mugs to pens to golf balls to trophies. The T-shirts and caps are still there, but so are plastic bags and jackets, and whole catalogues of products that can boast your company's name.
In addition, the Barkers own and operate Barker Animation, an art gallery of limited-edition original cartoon cells and related original artwork; Barker Fine Art & Sculptures; as well as the Barker Character Comic & Cartoon Museum, a wonderful treat for kids of all ages. The museum is home to hundreds of thousands of toys and other childhood baubles - some dating back to the 1800s. You might see the first lunchbox you ever had there, or your sister's revered tea set and all the dolls she once poured high tea for. Admission is free, and the memories stirred are priceless.
Today the original company, Barker Specialties, is one of the top 40 promotional products companies in the country. Many customers are among the largest and most successful companies in America, and the Barker showroom is the world's largest of its kind. Products are also sold at online virtual stores - a concept Barker pioneered more than a deacde ago.
And the client list of Barker Specialties seems as endless as its product list. The company customizes T-shirts for area Little League teams, plastic bags for NASA, jackets for the FBI, and over one million pencils for the U.S. Coast Guard, to name only a few. But Barker Specialties also still offers a unique, hard-to-find product that today's modern age has many customers pining for - old-fashioned service.
"People come to Barker Specialties because they want to talk with a professional advisor," says Barker, "not just someone who's just trying to push a product. If you want pens to give out at a booth and you don't want anything else, that's fine. But if you want people to actually stop at your booth, talk to you and find out about your business, then let's do a promotion that will give some excitement and exposure to your company. We want people to derive value from what they are buying from us."
And Barker Specialty clients seem to appreciate the extra mile the company goes for them. Some have been loyal patrons for 30, 40, even 50 years.
"My mother and father are really visionaries," describes Barker. "I think it's really because of their love of people. My mother, I know, enjoys coming here and working alongside our staff of 75 people. She considers each one to be a son or daughter to her.
"And my father," he adds, "for him, the smile of a child when they come into the museum is much more important than a sale."
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