A total of eight tenants have handed in their notice at New Covent Garden Market.
Mash Purveyors has confirmed it is relocating to north-west London business site Park Royal, as FPJ understands CGMA was not able to offer bigger premises either on its current site, or following the redevelopment.
The company declined to comment further on the reasons for its departure.
Helen Evans, business development director at CGMA, said: “We have eight tenants who have handed in their notices and plan to leave in April 2015. Two are small office tenants, two are retiring but may yet sell their businesses and two are planning to expand significantly and we don’t have room for them to do either on our current site or in the future.”
She said this figure compares to 2010 when the current leases were signed, and 37 tenants left the market. Since then the trading space on the Fruit and Vegetable market has been fully re-let, she said.
At the time of writing, Evans said it was not possible to disclose the names of other companies who are leaving as in some cases staff may not yet have been notified.
The news comes as part of an increasingly vocal campaign by the tenants’ association to extend the deadline for when tenants have to sign lease agreements.
In a recent letter to CGMA chief executive Jan Lloyd, seen by FPJ, chairman of the tenants’ association Gary Marshall said there are fears of “a massive exodus of tenants” if the decision to sign a lease is not extended.
Managing director of catering company Allison Risebro, Tony Allison, said his business has a contingency plan in place and would be able to move if necessary.
“We certainly don’t want to move. But we have got a contingency plan, although I can’t say what that is,” he said.
Allison warned that it could force others to follow if the big companies leave. “It’s not good for wholesalers if the caterers leave – moving away might force them to use other markets. And importing directly is becoming easier.
'If things get really bad I would be able to move my business out. But this is the ideal location at the moment. It might be that it would be more beneficial to downsize here and open up somewhere else as well, to have both options,” he said.
Sales director at First Choice Produce, Daniel Jerome, confirmed that the business has found other property that it would be able to move into.
“We’re in New Covent Garden Market at the moment. If they put the rents up, as long as it’s reasonable, we will be able to manage.
“I love the market. I just hope that CGMA doesn’t make it so hard that people have to leave. I really hope that they listen to everyone, and that works both ways. If we all came together we’d all be strong.”
Jerome said “it would depend” on whether the company would consider moving to another wholesale market, but said NCGM is “beneficial”.
