The UK's Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA) struck a note of resilience in reporting a slight trading slip at New Covent Garden Market (NCGM) in the last year.
The London wholesale market’s total turnover reached £584m (€703m), down by 3.8 per cent, for the year ending 31 March 2010, a performance hailed as “resilient” given the impact of the recession.
While NCGM’s total turnover declined by 3.8 per cent, fruit and vegetable wholesale was up 2.3 per cent, wholesale distribution fell by 9.3 per cent and the flower market was down by 10.6 per cent.
The market now contains 231 businesses employing 2,500 people and accounts for around 40 per cent of London’s fruit and vegetables eaten outside the home, according to the report submitted to DEFRA secretary Caroline Spelman.
Operating profit at CGMA, before feasibility study costs for the redevelopment of the market, was £2.2m (€2.6m), up from the 2008/09 figure £1.6m (€1.9m). After redevelopment feasibility costs of £3.3m (€3.9m), a loss after tax of £1.5m (€1.8) was recorded.
Some 85 per cent of tenant responses to an anonymous text survey rated CGMA service as good as or better than the previous year.
CGMA chief executive Jan Lloyd told freshinfo: “The market is made up of SMEs that are quite flexible. The independent retail sector has held up well and has held up the figures with the pressure that the foodservice side has been under.
“The fact that there has not been the amount of business failures that you might expect during a recession is credit to the resilient businesses on the market.”
CGMA has selected a shortlist of developers for the next stage of the procurement process to develop The Garden at New Covent Garden Market redevelopment project. It is thought the project will not affect traders for at least three years.
The authority said: “This project will be delivered at no expense to the taxpayer and will be entirely self-financing from CGMA’s land assets.”
