The outlet has been a composite venture since it was formed in 1974, selling fruit and vegetables, as well as meat and poultry, with both traditional wholesalers and foodservice and distribution services on the site.
There are now 100 businesses operating on the site - which is 90 per cent occupied - and the majority of the traders deal with fresh produce.
Matt Kelly, head of markets at Birmingham City Council, is upbeat about the future of the market and its role in supplying fresh food to the wider community. “The wholesale market is very lucky because there is a very big ethnic customer base in Birmingham and, with The Bullring opening in 2001 and pulling in 30 million visitors a year with some of the best shopping in the UK behind the West End of London, the city is becoming increasingly attractive to retailers and foodservice operators,” he says.
“There has been a big swing away from supermarket shopping, and people are looking at food in a different way - it is not just about putting something on a plate anymore,” he adds. “There are so many opportunities for wholesale markets to get involved with 5 A DAY and Fruit for Schools in particular. We already take schoolchildren on tours around the market, and we need to continue to promote healthy, fresh food, which, on the market, is much cheaper than in supermarkets.”
So what does the next few years have in store for the traders at Birmingham? “The tenants’ leases expire in 2009, and existing leases will roll over,” Kelly says. “But we are looking at the possibility of relocating the market. The traders know that they have to move because the market has outgrown itself, but we have to identify a suitable site in line with what both the traders and their customers want.
“The market has been maintained well over the last 30-odd years, but we are playing catch-up with legislation. The fact that we are a composite market adds to this, because all the categories have their own rules and demands,” he adds.
An outline plan for the move was completed in October 2006. “We have looked at the business and we know it is sustainable, and we are now looking forward to the final stages of the plan, when a location and design will be formalised,” says Kelly. “But it is not easy to find a 35-acre site that is suitable for everyone - we need a user-friendly site with good transport links, away from the city centre, but not too far out so as to break away from the retail market in the city centre, with which we have a good relationship with.”
The next step will be to put together a development plan, and Kelly has been monitoring similar processes unfolding at New Covent Garden Market in London and in Manchester. “Both the markets at New Covent Garden and Manchester are undergoing a process of renovation at the moment, but what we are facing is different in that we will be relocating, so we have more scope for how we want the market to be,” he says.
The move is likely to take three years from the completion of the plan and a deal with a development partner.
No comments yet