Barretts of Canterbury: 28-30 St. Peter's Street, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2BL

1989 saw Barretts first business outside Canterbury when they bought Ashford Audio in Ashford’s County Square, and rebranded it as Barretts Sound and Vision. More expansion of the electrical business came in 1991 when the car accessory shop at St Peters Street became a Sony Centre and in 1994 when Barretts opened a Sony Centre in Maidstone’s Stoneborough (now Chequers) centre.

By the late eighties all the remaining BL marques had distilled down to just Rover and Land Rover and, with the arrival of the Discovery, we needed to have a separate facility for Land Rover, so another round of musical premises started in 1991. Firstly the Rover workshops were moved into the PDI building at the Malthouse site, then the used cars moved into the old workshops behind the showroom at St Peter’s Street and finally the premises at Broad Oak Road were converted into the Land Rover dealership.

Having expanded as far as the Rover franchise would allow in Canterbury, further opportunities were sought. In 1992 the opportunity to represent Rover in Folkestone was taken, and our premises in Foord Road were opened.

The global car business was also changing rapidly, and after years of representing just "British Leyland" brands the time had come to broaden the range of cars offered and Subaru was now represented in Canterbury, sharing the Jaguar showroom. The late nineties saw an enormous expansion of the Company. New premises were built and new franchises added as a new policy was pursued to offer customers in East Kent a wider range of cars. 1998 was to become a pivotal year for the Company as a new Rover workshop was built on the Malthouse site, the accident repair centre moved into the "old" workshop and Barretts vacated the Strawberry Fields site in St Stephens.

The other occupants of the St Stephens site, the radio workshop, moved to the Company's new electrical showroom in Maynard Road. Having also moved our Sound and Vision centre in Rose Lane to Maynard Road the Digital World name was now used to signify the much wider range of goods on offer. White and brown electrical goods were now displayed in the custom built 10,000 square feet of showroom. The Ashford Rover and Land Rover dealership also opened in March 98, allowing Barretts the claim of full East Kent representation for the two marques. 1999 saw the arrival of Citroen at St Peters Street in Canterbury and then, at the end of the year Barretts made their first purchase of another dealership when Newmans BMW in Vauxhall Road, Canterbury was acquired.