Belfast
The market is situated on the City Business Park in Dunmurry, six miles south of the centre of Belfast. Featuring just Total Produce with 50 employees and sister company Get Fresh - a firm dedicated to catering for hotels and restaurants - with a team of 15, the market has enjoyed decent trade in the four years since Total Produce moved there.
Bradford
Changes are afoot at St James’s Wholesale Market. Proposals for a new project to power the market’s lighting through solar panels on the roof of the site could be in jeopardy after government cuts in feed-in tariffs. However, plans for a £750,000 scheme to redevelop wasteland alongside the market into a new car park for the tenants are well underway.
Bristol
The Albert Crescent-based Wholesale Fruit Centre comprises more than 10 companies that span across fresh produce wholesale and foodservice provider businesses.
Cardiff
Governed by a board of private companies, Cardiff’s seven fruit and vegetable wholesale businesses and two flower wholesalers have resided on the Wholesale Fruit Centre on Bessemer Road since the 1970s. Here, secondary wholesalers and foodservice suppliers are leading the way.
Hull
It’s two years since the eight traders at the market moved to West Hull from the city centre to the brand new Priory Park site. Phil Hough of Associated Growers Hull Ltd says traders are pleased with the move as they “hit that little window” when their old site - now unable to be sold - was sought after. Traffic flows and facilities are good at Priory Park, but trade is suffering because of a nearby Asda.
New Covent Garden Market
The lengthy but ambitious market redevelopment at the south London site has been held up worldwide as an example of how to reconstitute a market. Careful negotiation between the traders and the authority have edged the project towards the balance that Borough failed to achieve - becoming a tourist attraction and food hub but still functioning as a wholesale market.
New Spitalfields
All the talk at the east London market since the capital won the Olympic bid in 2005 has been about how the games will affect trade. With contract caterers winning the bulk of the business, traders will be hoping the surge in those eating out in the capital will pass on to the market and several key roads will be open for them to use during the period.
Glasgow
An extensive refurbishment programme is now complete, with the outside of the Blochairn Road site re-clad by owner City Markets (LLP) and a number of tenants following suit by refitting their own offices. New lighting, non-slip flooring and spruced up signage have also changed the look and feel of the market significantly.
Gateshead
Tensions at Gateshead have been running high for some years, with the bosses of two of the three fresh produce companies - namely John Holland of JR Holland Food Services and Dudley Baty of Thomas Baty - at loggerheads. A new roof has finally been agreed and fitted but the long-term future of the largely empty market’s site remains questionable under this state of affairs.
Manchester New Smithfield
A number of feasibility studies and plans for redevelopment have been carried out at this vibrant market, but not progressed much over the years at the ageing 30-acre site. New business services manager Mazur Iqbal is positive that real change is imminent. “We are looking at two options for the fish market - a refurbishment or a rebuild on site in the next six to 12 months. We will also be looking at the wider redevelopment of the wholesale market and how we can make changes to the infrastructure,” he says.
Liverpool Wholesale Market
A regeneration of Liverpool’s market, owned by French firm Geraud Markets, could be underway within the next five years. The popular option among the 18 fruit, veg and flower traders is for the council to agree a long lease “at peppercorn rents” in return for the market’s owners and traders investing in a new, more compact site, according to Wholesale Produce Association president Geoff Wells. He would like to see extended canopies and a covered roof to protect the produce and better services to the site.
Sheffield
Originally operating as a 40 business-strong market, after two moves South Yorkshire Fresh Produce Centre now consists of five large wholesale companies in an industrial estate just outside the city, which has housed it for 10 years. The council originally owned the site, but now many companies have bought their own units and the other businesses are under a head lease agreement with a private company. There remains uncertainty as the lease ends imminently.
Western International
The west London market has perhaps the most to gain from the business development manager programme prevalent at all three London wholesale markets in recent years. Under the guidance of BDM Peter Clarke, a number of traders with a traditionally exotic product range are adding a British offer to their portfolio. Always looking for more, the market has been actively seeking home-grown produce.
Wolverhampton
A familiar story continues at Wolverhampton Wholesale Fruit & Vegetable Market and traders claim the council has not understood their needs. “We have had three meetings cancelled in the last three months and there’s so many issues building up,” says the tenants associaton’s Jim Stansfield, who says facilities and waste management are not up to scratch. Some 25 per cent of trade at the Hickman Avenue market is catering, 40 per cent independent retail and the rest is made up of market traders and secondary wholesale.
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