Michael Barker, from Barkers of Geraldine, with a jar of their jam. Photo / Simon Baker

Michael Barker, from Barkers of Geraldine, with a jar of their jam. Photo / Simon Baker

Barker's of Geraldine has strong roots in the South Island town where six generations of the Barker family have lived. It is a name Michael Barker hopes will help sell more jams and preserves as he puts a bit of the family's tradition into every jar.

With 120 full-time staff, the company is the largest employer in Geraldine, a picturesque town southwest of Christchurch.

"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," Barker says of a move to update the company's brand.

Anthony Barker, who died in 1999, was a man of multiple talents. He learned all his preserving skills from his mother.

The Barkers had been farming since the mid-1800s, and after the family farm was split up, Anthony Barker ended up with a property that was not of an economic size. He turned his inventive mind to developing products.

"My father then started developing wild elderberry wine and developed a very successful cottage industry," says Michael Barker.

From elderberry wine, he tried blackcurrant liqueur and even managed to export some of his production.

The ample blackcurrant crop - "the kiwifruit of the South Island" - gave the family another business idea. In the 1980s machines were brought in and unsweetened blackcurrant syrup was made.

"Our blackcurrant syrup remains a leading brand, not to be confused with the Barker-Halls brand which is our competitor," says Barker.

Anthony Barker also invented the Kent log fire, and sold "hundreds of units" before he sold the business to a subsidiary of an oil company.

This story of settlers, the land, and the food they make is a heritage hard to beat. That's the story Barker hopes will lend a bit of magic to his company's products in their competition against colossal brands.

That move to emphasise its local connections has seen Barker's add "of Geraldine" to its name, and launch new-style labels for its products.

Never mind that the company is a David from Geraldine battling the Goliaths - Heinz-Wattie's, Cerebos and others - in the jams, preserves, chutneys and syrups segment on supermarket shelves.

"We are competing against international brands. Our point of difference is we are a family-owned business. Some consumers like to buy a story and we have a wonderful heritage. Our culture is that of a small town. Here you are part of a community. We are different from a suburbia industrial park," Barker says.