The Corporation Fruit Market is located right in the centre of Ireland’s bustling cosmopolitan and some might say continental capital was built in 1892 and encompasses more than the daily trading of fruit and vegetable to Irish symbol groups, independent retailers and caterers.
In this ornate, partly Grade II listed open canvas market, generations of the same families have taken on the fresh produce gauntlet, while brothers still work side by side within different companies in the market and consumers wonder through the spacious buyers’ walk. The atmosphere is one of pride and comradeship, with traders helping each other out throughout the day.
Although the wholesale market has been hit by the evolution of supermarkets in the same way as those in the UK, Dublin’s market benefits from being the only traditional wholesale market in the country. Despite its city centre surroundings inevitably becoming busier and less appropriate for use, it still provides a functional hub for the country’s businesses to get a variety of fruit and vegetables. What’s more, while the main multiples such as Tesco and Dunnes now source through their own distribution hubs outside of the city centre, symbol groups such as Superquinn, SuperValu, Centra and Spa, as well as the likes of discounters Aldi and Lidl are still utilising the wholesalers surrounding the traditional market, bringing business to the area and proving that wholesalers can still attract the big guns.
But like anything, it is far from an ideal situation. Many wholesalers on the market will tell you that their trading community has suffered at the hands of indecision and indifference. The general consensus is that the market has been left in a state of limbo.
Some date talk of the market’s regeneration or move to a more convenient location on the M50 as far back as 1961. But various grand plans have come and gone, leaving wholesalers at a loss as to whether to invest in their businesses, look at tenancies elsewhere or carry on regardless.
“The whole thing has been mothballed until we come out of the recession,” explains Pat Martin, co-owner of K&M Fruit &Veg. “My preferred option would be to move as the facilities here are not up to date. We are an industrial estate in the middle of a city centre. It is inevitable that we are going to move, but we just don’t know when or how.
“All of the wholesale businesses would have to move on block together to maintain a market environment, but at the moment we are in limbo; like suspended animation.”
The latest plan has been well documented in FPJ and talk of a public-private partnership venture to turn the market into a redevelopment site with a wholesale, retail and public use area got to the consultation stage, before the recession put plans on ice.
Joe Crosbie, who took on the superintendent role at the market for landlord Dublin City Council, aims to guide tenants through the issues that the tenants have with regeneration, or lack of it. “There is a great deal of potential in this market,” he says. “Because of the timing of the global recession, the regeneration did not go ahead, but my aim is to support the traders and take them forward, as well as operate the site and maintain health and safety. The market’s masterplan made it to the public arena for the tendering process under public procurement, but it was suspended, as the preferred bidder couldn’t proceed to contract at that stage because of the economic downturn. Unfortunately, the boom was over.”
But even before then, there were several plans to move the wholesalers out of the city centre. According to traders, the failure of the larger companies to agree on a site that was right meant talks just went round in circles. Martin was on the committee for market redevelopment and says that discussions started about 10 years ago. “There were lots of different plans and concepts, but the process took too long and included too many people with their own individual agendas. As a result, absolutely nothing happened for a long time and there were two to three large businesses that couldn’t agree on where to move the market. There had to be an agreement on collaboration. Now, because of the downturn, there is no money.
“The council did everything it could to encourage it; it was going to give financial assistance in the way of relocation money.”
Now it is clear that the window of opportunity and what the traders refer to as the Celtic Tiger has slipped by, and the main problem that the market faces is the lack of money, both in the case of the tenants and the landlord. Although the market is ticking over nicely, fears abound for when the symbol groups inevitably break out on their own and start to source directly. Adding to that, parking and access is a real problem at the site, with lorry deliveries restricted to 7am and traders and customers alike coming up against working in the middle of a busy capital city.
However, the need to move on and make the market sustainable for future generations is obvious on Dublin’s wholesale site, even though traders still value the traditions and nostalgia of more than 120 years of wholesale market history. One such trader on the market is Derek Leonard. From a long line of wholesalers, Leonard’s great grandmother was one of the first stallholders on the market back when it first opened in the 1890s. His enthusiasm is infectious. “Yes, we are back in a recession, but a recession can be healthy for the fruit and vegetable marketplace in many ways,” he insists. “People go back to basics and you see resurgence in independents, street markets and the like. There is always a bargain on this market and people realise that there is real quality at a fair price here in Dublin. And at the end of the day, it is all about the customer and trading with people. We have to help our neighbours in times of hardship and unfortunately, there is too much greed around.
“This recession is not as bad as people are making out, but the panic sets in and people think they haven’t got enough. The silver lining to the recession is that people are more cautious and shop around for their purchases, which can only mean good things for wholesalers as we serve so many different types of customers.”
So even after being held back by contemplating a move for decades, it is not too late for Dublin’s market to diversify. Unlike most wholesale markets in the UK, the general consensus is that Dublin’s fruit and vegetable centre needs to welcome the average consumer off the street and a retail area or allotted time for consumers to buy is being talked about.
“I aim to promote the market to the public,” says Crosbie. “I have already had the footpaths reinstated in preparation and the presentation and cleanliness standards of the market need to be addressed. I will work together with the tenants to ensure that the market is ready for the public.”
John Cunningham bought Dublin wholesale business Thomas La Grue & Sons Ltd six years ago in the hope of benefiting financially from the regeneration that never materialised, but has found that his business has gone from strength to strength. He learnt his trade at his aunt’s business, wholesaler Begley Bros, and after specialising in Irish vegetables as well as more exotic ranges, he felt the time was right to diversify into the retail sector by opening his own greengrocer shop about four kilometres from the market in Kimmage. Cunningham will focus on providing top-end fruit and vegetables at the shop, which opened this weekend, and will be in direct competition with the Superquinn store across the road.
“Consumers used to be treated with contempt on the market, but since the supermarkets took a lot of the business away from the traders they are becoming more commonplace,” says Cunningham. “It is obviously still primarily wholesalers, but a lot of them have become retailers too. To be honest, we badly need the footfall.
“At the greengrocers, we will be able to provide product cheaper than Superquinn and therefore will offer more value. I have been able to get a very good deal on rent because of the recession. Supermarkets have held all the aces for so long and now it is a time to give them a taste of their own medicine.”
Leonard agrees: “This market is Dublin’s best kept secret and there is no reason why it should be. We welcome all and have been involved in the Incredible Edibles programme with the Irish government to promote fruit and vegetables in junior schools throughout the country. Through a grant from the government, we help supply schoolchildren with a piece of fruit or a snacking vegetable for their lunchbox each day.”
But the main issue the wholesale market in Dublin has is that there is not one unified voice for the traders. Over the past 10 years, regeneration plans have abounded in the form of rumours with no real communication initiated, leaving some tenants clueless as to their future. The tenants’ association, headed up by Denise Clarke, meets up only when there is a problem and even then, she admits, very few turn up. “There are no regular meetings and there is no need for them,” she says. “It is the same old thing worldwide - no money. We won’t see regeneration for the next 10 years, so we just have to get on with it. It was a case of too little, too late. There is a good atmosphere here and everyone gets on, so we will continue in the same way.”
Crosby plans to change this, but he is aware that it will be a long road to success among a market community that is used to looking after their own. “At the end of the day, the market is good for the local economy, it is a long-standing tradition and it is employment,” he says. “It may take some work but we will be successful.”
So how do you revitalise an industry that has been a successful model until falling at one hurdle after 100 years? It seems that in Dublin the proverb rings true - if you can’t beat them, join them. Only time will tell what will become of Dublin’s Corporation Fruit Market, and indeed the wholesale industry in general, but it is clear that if individual traders do not speak up or invest in their own long-term sustainability, they will be left behind.
A trip down memory lane
Jackie Leonard & Sons Ltd was established by Kate Leonard, my great grandmother, when Dublin’s wholesale market was opened on 6 September 1892, says fourth-generation family member and director of the company Justin Leonard.
The land that the wholesale market was built on has been used as a trading site for fruit and vegetables since Viking times, but when Kate set up her business, Dublin City Council had decided that these companies needed a more permanent base and allowed tenants to open stands. Kate was actually the first person to open a business.
At that time, of course, there was no suffrage for women and she had to get a man to open the business in her place. Although he had his own independent career, her husband - my great grandfather - put his name to the business, but it was my great grandmother who ran it and treated it entirely as her own.
People say that fruit and vegetables are in our family’s blood and each generation has changed the business and made their mark in some kind of way. My great grandmother was very much focused on home-grown vegetables, as you would be at that time. My grandfather, Kate’s son, took the business towards being more of a potato trader. My father decided to take the business into fruit as well as vegetables - which his father was very against because of the logistics involved -and I have taken the business into delivering prepared products for the catering industry.
Now we trade from a building, which used to be the school my father attended, near the Dublin wholesale market site and have created a high-care preparation facility within it.
Convenience is a growing industry; we now deal with fresh-cut fruit and vegetables and salad bags. All businesses should re-invent themselves to keep their offer fresh. The mentality in the fresh produce industry is that there is no value in produce. The perception is that vegetables are cheap, cheerful and plentiful, but it is not true. Everything has a cost, from the grower and distributor to the machinery used. The multiples are destroying the business as fresh produce is always their loss leader, with a massive display of cheap product at the front of the store. Using a high-value product to get people through the door works for them, but it destroys the perception of what fresh produce should cost.
The fresh produce game has always been a high turnover, low- profit venture and it is the same now as it was 100 years ago. We have to value the product, as selling it below its value will kill the wholesale industry.
N Smyth & Co invests to stay ahead of the game in dublin
Most companies are surviving on the market, but not without great difficulties. The inevitable disruption caused by various developments going on throughout the city centre have had their effects and some customers no longer travel to the market, says Marc Andrews, managing director of N Smyth & Co, which operates on a site on the immediate outskirts of Corporation Fruit Market and is also the only independent banana import, ripening and distribution company in Ireland.
I would be surprised if many wholesale firms in Dublin made any money last year, but N Smyth & Co is a third-generation family company and we have seen recession before and have got through difficulties like this. This time around, we have had to cut the cloth where necessary. A large proportion of our business is in banana sales and we have focused on this area and grown it over the last few years.
We believed that, realistically, the regeneration was not going to happen and instead of waiting to find out, we have reinvested in the business over a five-year period. To stop investing in your business is very restrictive and especially dangerous in an industry that has taken such a knock over the last 20 years.
It would be fantastic if we could create something along the lines of Barcelona market here; where consumers are welcome and wholesale suppliers exist alongside that offer. The retail mix could revitalise the market and the offer would be an extra string to their bow. We need to bring people together again in the market and fill the empty banks, possibly with a variety of retailers. It could turn the market into a tourist and shopping destination, but there are many issues to tackle first such as tenants’ rights and the renovation of the market interior.
We ourselves have diversified by opening a retail outlet in the way of a greengrocer in Marino, Dublin, and it is successful in that it has given us a new insight into our customers’ requirements.
Keelings welcomes new season
Well-known Irish company Keelings has a distribution facility on the immediate periphery of Corporation Fruit Market, experiencing the best of both worlds with the advantages of being an independent site, as well as benefiting from the rich tradition affiliated with Dublin wholesale market.
“Keelings is very much an evolved wholesale business: focused on the future, while being respectful of the past,” says Richard Moore, managing director of Keelings’ wholesale division. “We focus on our customers, irrespective of their location, and do not concentrate too much on what our competitors are doing.”
Whereas the wholesale industry has historically focused on price, Keelings maintains that quality is the name of the game. A good deal of the product the company sends out from its Dublin distribution facility is sourced from the Keeling’s family farms, which specialise in growing soft-fruit and salad products. At the time FPJ went to press, Keelings wholesale distribution facility had just received a delivery of its new-season, Irish-grown, Keelings-branded strawberries, which had just been picked that morning.
“There is an increasing demand for product provenance and as a result, we source Irish product grown by both our own farms and other independent growers, where possible,” continues Moore. “We make it easy for our growers as we issue programmes and specifications in accordance with our customer base requirement.”
Keelings welcomes on-site customers at the distribution centre, has a dedicated telesales team for national distribution and believes that a healthy mix of different kinds of customers is the right balance for a fruit wholesale business. Moore continues: “We are committed to providing our customers’ requirements with the best-quality fruit, vegetables and potatoes from all over the world. We are here to supply quality produce to conscious customers.”
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