With traders frantically tapping iPad screens and waving smartphones into each other’s faces, a visit to one of Britain’s wholesale markets isn’t quite what it used to be. From the notepad to the iPad, new technology and digital applications have completely changed the working day
for traders.
“We’ve moved from everything being paper-based to smartphone technology being critical to the profitability of the business,” admits Mark Tate of wholesale firm George Perry at Birmingham Market.
Tate uses live technology provided by Fresh Metrics to record all sales and stock information, and says he is proud to have helped lead the 143-year-old wholesaler into the
digital age.
Tate adds: “We are now able to spend more time selling on the pitch because the ‘day end’ stock reports are instantly available to us. Having everything instantly logged digitally eliminates human error and gives us more time to spend on selling fresh produce rather than on admin duties.
Richard Jones of Anglia Business Solutions says that the firm’s Microsoft-backed LINKfresh application, which is available to download onto iOS and provides a service dedicated to wholesale, is proof that traders will get left behind if they don’t move with the times. “We are now in the post-PC era where everything has to be accessible in the palm of somebody’s hand on a low-cost device,” he explains.
“Having wholesale information immediately available means a seller can instantly check previous dealings with a customer or can see live stock information direct from the packhouse; our service is helping traders make critical business solutions
more efficiently.”
The integration of technology isn’t without its challenges and Mark James of C&C Fruit at London’s New Covent Garden Market admits there have been issues since the firm converted over to iPads and started using wholesale managementsoftware.“While the savings on stationary have been excellent, the iPads can be slow as we have so many different lines and the memory can get clogged up. In comparison, I’d say we are still using 50 per cent paper to record sales data,” says James.
Affinitus Group’s Freshware software now has more than 150 clients, including 24 individual companies at New Covent Garden Market, and James admits the software has revolutionised the way the market does business.
However, one UK trader told FPJ that there are doubts at many of the nation’s wholesale markets around the privacy of vital information that is stored on the various digital applications available. In an industry where the competition is intense and offering the best price counts for everything, he says that these fears have to be properly erased in order for everybody to switch over.
“With a lot of these applications, one guy on the tech firm’s support desk will have access to all the prices from traders at a single market,” he says. “Traders can get nervous as they have to place a lot of trust into the technology; I think these concerns could perhaps be addressed more clearly.”
Family wholesaler S Thorogood & Sons was one of the first firms to switch over to the Freshware software at New Covent Garden Market, and Andrew Thorogood believes technology
will continue to change the way that the market functions.
“Ten years ago everything was written down and now it is all on the iPad, which means you can do more with the same number of staff as there’s no catching up on written work at the end of hours.” He concludes with a smile: “Before you know it we won’t even need to use our hands.” —