The Recycling Room: Sue & CHRIS Barker Talk about sustainability in the hair supply business
We're excited to announce a new episode of The Recycling Room, a podcast from Recycle My Salon! In this episode, Marc Carey talks with Sue & Chris Barker about sustainability in the hair & beauty supply industry. We all have a responsibility to ensure that our products and services are sustainable. This podcast is a great resource for anyone interested in learning more about this important issue and what the salon supply business is doing in the UK about sustainability.
Listen now! (12 minutes)
[Marc Carey]
Welcome! Today I'm very proud and pleased to say I've got Sue Barker and Chris from Barker's Hair and Beauty joining me. How are you doing?
[Sue Barker]
Really well, very excited to speak with you and talk about Recycle My Salon.
[Chris Barker]
We're excited.
[MC]
Do you know what, it's really nice to have the two of you on so we get a proper chat. It's good. Sometimes when we have an interview, we're talking to people about what's going on and the events they're involved with and it becomes a kind of backwards and forwards and it's often great for the listener to get a bit of a view from two or three. So good to see that Chris is there giving you a bit of support Sue.
[SB]
Yes he's usually there putting his support in, that's what families do.
[MC]
Exactly. So there you go you've just mentioned it's a family business, tell us a little bit about the background.
[SB]
Barker's was incorporated on Valentine's day in 1977 by my late husband, Jonathan Barker, and sadly he passed away in 2014 so my two sons and I have taken it on and run the business.
[MC]
Well, that's great isn't it because then that legacy continues, and you say both your sons are involved in the business?
[SB]
Both my sons are involved in the business. I have a daughter and she doesn't a bit but it's mainly the boys.
[MC]
It's great as well to hear of family businesses, particularly in the current climate and having survived during the period that we've just gone through, that must have been something that played on your mind. In terms of creating a sustainable business, and obviously today we're specifically talking about recycling and environmental issues, but often sustainability gets overlooked, including economic sustainability, so how have you found that transition as a family business?
[CB]
It's been a challenge. Fundamentally we want to be more sustainable but I think these changes also help us to run the business more effectively. I think we end up naturally pursuing sustainability to just progress the company. I mean a direct example would be transport, we've been trying to look for cheaper alternatives to using petrol such as hybrid vehicles. We're also looking at our journey plans and getting third party companies in to look at our routes. Obviously there's an economic benefit to that but there's equally a carbon benefit also.
[MC]
So you'd already started to think about this and implement this in your business before you were approached to get involved with Recycle My Salon?
[SB]
Yes. I mean that's why when it was mentioned to us we jumped on it immediately, we didn't even have to think about it. Being a grandmother myself and seeing the state of the world, you know we can't change the world individually but if everybody just does one thing it's got to make a difference.
[MC]
Yeah, I think that's the great thing about this particular scheme as well, often we fear that phrase "thinking globally and acting locally" but this actually allows you to do that right in your community, right on your high street, in the salon you can get on with making a difference.
[SB]
Absolutely.
[MC]
So how easy was it for you to get involved in this? Presumably you've got the recycle bins on your site?
[SB]
Well at the moment we're in the early stages but we've just got the bins delivered. We're now marketing and giving information out to the salons and as you are fully aware it's a non- profit-making exercise, so it's just all for the good.
[CB]
I think it came to light when Goldwell's Paul Rossi, who we've got a very close relationship with and who's heavily involved in the HBSA, introduced us to the scheme. When we heard about it and saw just how passionate he was we thought it's just a fantastic opportunity to get behind. I think sometimes you try and actively seek the sustainable ideas but often you see what competitors or friends and colleagues are doing and adopt their ideas, so I think when he came to us we just thought brilliant that sounds like something we really want to get behind.
[MC]
I think that's one of the interesting things about this scheme as well: it's the way that it's brought the hairdressing community together. You've just mentioned there about best practices seen from "competitors", everybody seems to be pulling together to make this a success.
[SB]
It's nice, isn't it? It's the one thing that we can join hands together for and make a difference.
[MC]
Obviously the HBSA have been fundamentally pushing this forward but mentioning other partners there like Goldwell, have you seen that communication spread throughout your network? Maybe other people coming to you with details about this scheme having not realised you're involved with it?
[SB]
No, not as yet but again it's still very early doors for us, I can't imagine that won't begin to happen very soon.
[CB]
We know that the target market and customer mindset is changing, for example moving products to vegan friendly and all these things. Everyone's clearly wanting to join together for the greater good and I think this scheme will go hand in hand with those. I think as soon as we start mentioning it to customers and other people the word of mouth will spread really fast.
[MC]
Yeah I think that's a really good point, Chris. There was a time when everyone was talking about Generation Y and the millennials and of course generation Z are upon us before we know it and now Gen Alpha is not far on their heels. These new generations do come to the market as consumers with a very different viewpoint, particularly around ethics and environmental matters, don't they?
[CB]
Yeah, I would definitely agree.
[SB]
Yeah, and the brands that we supply just make it easy for the consumer.
Speaker 3
This problem has arisen from convenience and I think it's been exacerbated by consumers having that sort of throwaway idea and being a little bit ignorant to what the consequences are but I don't think people do it maliciously. I think consumers are starting to recognize the environmental impact from watching local TV and looking on social network platforms and I think when people realise the consequences of these disposable goods they'll start to change their mindsets to it. I think going without some of those really convenient things won't be that much of a change for people to make the future a bit brighter for everyone. So, fingers crossed everyone sees the good that we're doing and joins in.
[MC]
Yeah I guess that's part of the point, making it as easy as possible for people. I remember speaking to a few other people that have been involved in the scheme and they were mentioning that they were under the impression that some of their foils and tubes were already being recycled. So just coming back to your point about there being a bit of a misunderstanding about the full cycle process of these materials, now bringing this forward people can really understand it.
[SB]
Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
[MC]
From your perspective, in terms of Barkers Hair and Beauty, you're already working on sustainability and are involved in this brilliant scheme, so what do you think your next moves might be? Have you seen any other indications of what the next move in the hair industry will be, in terms of sustainability?
[SB]
The honest answer is that it's just more of an improvement of what we already have. We can say on a daily basis people tweaking products and packaging, tweaking everything really.
Speaker 3
I think if you're a salon owner the biggest thing is coloring people's hair and this scheme is already addressing that process. But they're all running hair dryers and using a lot of energy so for me personally I think the next thing that should be looked at is how you reduce that energy consumption. We've seen that they've brought out new taps or showerheads so that salons can use less water but get the same pressure but I think that we're not addressing the energy used in terms of all the high voltage equipment. So, I think that's something that should definitely be looked at.
[MC]
Yeah and I guess coming back to that point about the economic value, the way that prices are with the energy crisis at the moment it's not just the environmental impact of that it's the bottom line.
[CB]
Yeah with wind farms or even silly little things like Tesla bringing out batteries that you can use to store electricity in the salon. So maybe in the future when solar panel cells get better places can use energy that they're creating themselves instead of getting it from the national grid. I'm sure there are other ways to do it as well, you know all these tech people are coming up with ideas that I can't even fathom so there might be something around the corner that none of us can see coming.
[MC]
It's great isn't it, to see that in the SME space and right down to the High Street we're having these discussions about these big issues when ironically, it seems to me, that the big corporates and governments are getting it wrong. It's been fascinating talking to you today because I love to get these different perspectives on the Recycle My Salon Scheme. So I really appreciate your time today, Sue and Chris. Just remind us then about Barker's Hair and Beauty.
Speaker 3
So we're a family-run business and we've been running for over 40 years. I'd like to think that we've built up some fantastic customer relations over that time. We have a 360 approach to the market so we're fundamentally business to business but we have account managers on the road, we have a tele sales team and we do online. Our approach is that we'll try and get to every single customer. In our industry there's different types of salons and we're not bigger than any of them so we cater to the A,B and C salons. We feel that we cater for all the different markets, you know with high price items and lower priced and we try to make sure that we have the latest up to date trends, brands and products.
[MC]
Including being part of Recycle My Salon.
[CB]
Absolutely, that's the most important part, forget everything else.
[MC]
Listen, it's been such a pleasure to speak to you both today and I really appreciate your time. So, thanks for contributing to this and thank you for supporting the Recycle My Salon scheme.
[SB]
It's been a pleasure.
[CB]
You're very welcome.
