Matthew Barton enjoyed a well-earned moment in the spotlight at last year’s Re:fresh awards when he walked away with the More People-sponsored Young Person of the Year award. The 24-year- old’s colleagues won over the hearts and votes of the judges with their account of a passionately dedicated young man who had already devoted a decade to working in the family’s Manchester wholesale business, Barton & Redman.
Not one for prolonged academia as a young teenager, Barton still managed to pass his school exams after a serious head injury, before moving from a part-time to full-time position at the firm’s New Smithfield market pitch. Starting out as a fork-lift truck driver, Barton soon picked up the hang of sales and has worked his way up to be one of the company’s key traders. He now manages a team of 16 employees - most of whom are some years his senior - and such is his commitment to the firm that he barely has time to sleep, let alone partake of the activities which occupy most men of his age.
“I start at one in the morning,” says Barton. “First of all I do the selling off the pitch, then I’m upstairs in the office doing all the buying for fruit. I wouldn’t like to be in the office all day so in the afternoons I go out and do a bit of repping, maybe around Birmingham, and in the evenings at home I take orders on the telephone. Somebody can ring me at 8pm and I’ll answer.”
So, any regrets about his chosen metier? “I grew up with it, so it’s all I know,” says Barton. “It is difficult for young people because you start at 1am and don’t finish until 3pm - six days a week. I go out on a Sunday but I can’t drink because I have to drive to work again on a Monday morning. It is hard, especially in summer when it stays light so late, but I’ll be in this trade for the rest of my life.” It comes down to a question of perspective, he suggests. “I’ve grown up now and I don’t want to go out as much. I’m focused on the business. I want to pick it up and move it along a little.”
However, Barton is well aware that such enthusiasm is not shared by most of his contemporaries. “The trade definitely needs more young people coming into it,” he says. “Looking around Manchester market, there’s only a handful of people who will still be here when I’m 50 years old. Some people have mentioned opening the market at 7am to try and attract younger people but when you have got to get deliveries to customers’ shops at 8am, you can’t do that. There’s no way around it, you either like the job or you don’t.”
Barton says for every one young person who will see the job through, another nine will call it quits after the first innings. “It’s hard to explain but I know just by looking at them,” he explains. “If they are not jumping around at two, three o’ clock in the morning at the start, they are never going to be.”
According to Barton, some posts are particularly difficult to fill. “It’s very hard to get good delivery drivers because they could go and work for any of the big haulage companies and not lift a thing. Down here, they have to be up for 2am and load the lorries when they get here. It’s the same with fork-lift truck drivers. It’s not very good money for getting up at that time in the morning.”
Fortunately for Barton’s father Paul, the current chairman of the business, his younger son Thomas is also keen to learn the ropes. “He’s a couple of years younger so he can be difficult at times, but if he listens he’ll be a good salesman,” says Barton. “He’s certainly got the right teachers here, as I had. To be a good salesman, you need good communication skills and you need to listen - you can’t go to university to study for this job.”
Having watched its traditional mainstay - the greengrocer trade - slowly disappear, Barton & Redman has developed a successful delivery business, which it is keen to nurture. “The delivery service definitely benefits the business,” says Barton. “We have lorries going as far as Birmingham and if they would rather have stuff come from Manchester instead of just going to Birmingham market we must be doing something right. I would like to see us put a couple more wagons on the road and maybe deliver a bit further away.”
Barton’s drive is also demonstrated in his commitment to developing new lines. “Asian veg has been a good line for us,” he says. “We are one of only a few English people in the country importing Pakistani produce, such as Kinos (mandarins). We did 13 containers last year and they sold very well. I’m in the process of doing them again; we are halfway through the season at the moment. I’m always looking for niche lines. I’ve also been looking at different varieties of apple. We did Brookfield, a Royal Gala from France, which the Asian customers like because it is very highly coloured. I also do 20-30 pallets a week of eggs for the Asian cash and carry customers.”
So, where would Barton like to see the business headed? “Being sold like Redbridge, and offered more for it,” he suggests. In the meantime, he will keep up the hard work to maintain the company’s recipe for success. “The business has grown in the last 12 months which is down to a good team of salesmen, a good delivery service and most of all, good management,” he says. Barton is also hoping to try his luck at this year’s Re:fresh event, which he reckons he should win because he hasn’t “had a day off since the last one”.
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