“There are different traders, new personalities, and different fruits and vegetables available,” says Jim Heppel, chief executive of the Spitalfields Market Tenants’ Association (SMTA). “But it is, essentially, the same wholesale market, providing a service with the original set up. The market is a lot like a sponge: you can try to hold it as tight as you can, but it will always spring back into shape.”
Spitalfields is overseen by the City of London (formerly the Corporation of London), which liaises with the SMTA in order to run the market. The role of the SMTA, which represents 147 tenants, has changed a lot over the last 15 years, says Heppel. The focus is now on promoting the market and building its corporate image. “Our role is to represent the traders, and to take Spitalfields out into the market place,” he explains.
There are people from all over the world working in the market and this represents its diverse and multicultural customer base, with UK businesses alongside firms from countries, such as Turkey and China, says Chris Hutchinson, SMTA chairman. “All sorts of fruit and vegetables are sold in the market, and the range of products available is growing all the time,” he adds.
This means that the market has become more competitive since it opened. “A lot of the traders that came here 15 years ago from the old market have gone, and more will leave,” says Amin Choudary at Akbar. “The market is too competitive, and our business cannot grow.”
The longstanding wholesalers have been replaced by an influx of traders who do not know about the fresh produce market, or have any previous experience working within the sector, according to Neil Sexton at AW Sexton. “I’ve got 28 years experience, and a lot of people here now are not what I would call experienced. They’ve not grown up in the business. Years ago, people used to understand how to buy produce, but now you’ve got to tell them what’s in season,” he says.
The situation appears to be getting worse, adds Wayne Barlow at Booker Hart. “Things have gone drastically downhill over the last 15 years,” he says. “The greengrocers have all been killed off by the supermarkets and there are no new people on the market.
“Everyone’s down on quantities - probably two thirds on five years ago - so we have reduced the number of boxes we can sell. There were days when we had eight pallets, and if we had three left over, it wasn’t a very good day. Now it takes three days to sell three pallets. There are too many people selling the same sort of thing to too few people. The market really needs to be down-sized.”
Spitalfields is fast outgrowing the Leyton site to which the market relocated. “The market is a necessary half-way point for produce, and it provides a service for growers, importers and retailers,” says Heppel. But it is bursting at the seams. There will always be a market, the question is what shape or size it will be.The market is almost a victim of its own success, and it has grown out of its site, Hutchinson adds.
New health and safety rules introduced at Spitalfields on July 3 aimed at putting an end to over-trading and improving access for pedestrians and traffic have had a mixed reaction from traders. The new standards, which saw traders having to invest in forklifts with a top speed of five miles per hour and mezzanines for extra storage, were introduced in the market after the City of London spent six months in consultation with the SMTA.
The pavilion has been transformed over the last month, and it is a much better place to work, according to Jon Thomerson, director of JT Produce. “Traders were abusing the system,” he says. “There was so much produce it was almost meeting in the middle of the thoroughfare. Some firms had even been putting stuff out in the carparks, which makes it difficult for customers to park.” The new health and safety code was needed, Sexton adds. “If you’d seen us two months ago - we were one of the worst culprits. But things are moving much better now, and the new forklifts have not slowed things down.” The place is much less dangerous than it was, comments Ed Sandell at EC Sandell. “They should really get hold of the firms that haven’t responded to the new rules,” he says.
The majority of traders have accepted that, although the new regulations may be hard work, they are necessary to the running of the market, explains Paul Walker at Waldon (Fruit) Ltd, which took the opportunity to invest in new equipment.
But some traders have complained that the new health and safety guidelines have made trading difficult, and others resented outlaying money to bring their businesses up to the new standard. “Markets used to be all about atmosphere,” says Barlow. “All these new regulations make everything too clinical, although it is probably easier to work.”
The smaller stands have been most affected by the health and safety regulations, according to Hassan Shah, manager at A1 Veg Ltd, who has been trading on the site for a year. “The regulations mean more hassle and less space. Sometimes we have to stop lines if there is no space for them.” Mezzanines, which could double the space available to many companies, are only a temporary solution to the space shortages, according to Hutchinson.
Other traders claim that the health and safety restrictions are unworkable inside the pavilion. “The market should be demolished and rebuilt, as it has been badly designed,” says Choudary. “Traders at New Covent Garden and Western International have access from the back, but the layout at Spitalfields is all wrong. The new health and safety rules have made even less space to work, and they have made life difficult for us, particularly for traders with smaller stands. I will have to spend £16,000 on a new forklift, and probably the same again to build a mezzanine, and I am not happy about this.”
Hutchinson stresses that, although several traders have complained about the impact of the new heath and safety regulations, the market could only continue to operate with the rules in place. “You can’t argue with the rulings of the Health and Safety Executive,” he explains. “The market had not been obeying health and safety rules to the letter, and had been getting away with this for many years. The new rules cost us a lot of money and caused a lot of inconvenience in the short-term, but in the long-term we will have a much safer place to work. The market is almost unrecognisable, and we have to keep moving forward.”
Spitalfields has also been undergoing an environmental overhaul over the last 18 months as part of plans to bring the market up to standard according to Ken Alexander, superintendent at the City of London. “Recycling has been a buzz word around here since November last year, and this is what we are working on to bring the market up to date,” he says. The market produces an average of 12,000 tonnes of rubbish a year. “This used to go to landfill sites, but we now try to recycle as much cardboard, wood and plastic as we can,” he explains. There is a recycling plant at the back of the market which is run by cleaning contractors ISS. “This is our way of keeping up with the plans for the Olympics, and the good example that we are being set,” he adds.
Spitalfields recycles 30 per cent of all rubbish. “But we are hoping that this will rise to up to 40 per cent by Christmas, and up to 85 per cent by next December,” says Alexander.
Recycling should be an important part of the market, says Ruben Weekes, regional manager of ISS. “Only a small redirection has helped to recycle more waste, and we will continue to do more, and keep looking into ways of improving our systems. This will save money in the long run.”
The market produces 60-80t of waste fruit every month, which is used for composting, while each day around 10 palettes of spoilt fruit are taken to zoos and wildlife parks.
The cleaning process at the market uses seven million litres of water each year. But the market authorities have responded to the UK drought by installing tanks for rain water harvesting, says Alexander. “There are three tanks on the roof of the market pavilion, which each collect half a million litres of rain water, and this water is used for cleaning the pavilion each day.” There are also plans to incorporate solar panels and wind turbines into the market to cut down on energy costs.
The City of London is always looking for development opportunities, both in terms of improving the existing market and enlarging the site. There have been questions raised about the possibility of extending Spitalfields to create a composite market in East London. “Spitalfields is the jewel in the crown of the City of London, and we have a very good relationship with them,” says Heppel. The municipal governing body also owns Billingsgate and Smithfield markets and there has been debate on the three sites coming together. “There have been proposals that Billingsgate and Smithfield move to Spitalfields, if more space can be found, to create a composite market,” says Heppel. “But, although the tenants at Billingsgate have accepted that they will have to relocate at some point in the future, the authorities at Smithfield have made it clear that they don’t want to move.
“There is a need for some of the markets in London to come together, but the problem is that no one will commit. The markets are an important meeting place for buyers and sellers, and it’s not easy to move them. But we would fancy Billingsgate and Smithfield moving to Hackney Marshes, and becoming part of Spitalfields at some point.”
Hutchinson says that the prospect of having a composite market at Spitalfields is very exciting, although it is still a number of years away. “There is a very strong possibility that the UK’s premier one-stop-shop for fruit and vegetables, flowers, meat and fish will be based here within the next 10 years,” he claims.
But while many traders at Spitalfields would like to have the opportunity to diversify, and sell other products such as meat, fish and dairy alongside fresh produce, others would rather the market continued as a specialist centre for fruit and vegetables.
Zaheer Buut at World Fruit says that he would be very interested in diversifying if he had the opportunity to sell other products.
Thomerson proposes that the market could benefit from ancillary trades. “For example, it would be good to have a few shops, proper restaurants, a post office, a bank,” he says. “If we had those in the centre of the market, people would wander through and it would feel more like a community.
“There is more life left in this site yet. The old site was great but it wasn’t practical. Here we have the benefits of the M11 and I don’t think the borough of Waltham would want to lose us.”
Walker adds: “The people who come to Spitalfields are mainly greengrocers and stall holders on street markets, and we won’t lose them to any other market, no matter how many other products they sell. But we should have the option to sell different products, and that’s only fair.”
The future of Spitalfields market could be closely bound to developments in the area for the 2012 Olympic Games. “The Olympics could give us the opportunity to extend the market, and obtain enough room for a composite market,” says Hutchinson. “The traders know what’s going on, but they have to get on with their business for now, and that is supplying fruit and vegetables,” says Heppel. “But we are keeping an eye on development, and there is a lot of potential. The Olympics will generate business, but it is up to the traders to find it.”
Local development in preparation for the 2012 Games could also start the ball rolling for the expansion of the market. The 35-acre playing field next to the Spitalfields site has been compulsory purchased for the Olympics and will be converted into a coach and car park for the duration of the event, although Ken Livingstone has said that it must be reverted to its original state after the 2012 Games. The Olympics could also see temporary stadiums being built on a 50-60-acre site in Hackey Wick. These developments could be used to expand Spitalfields when the Games are over, says Heppel, although no proposals have been drawn up as yet.
But many traders are wary of the opportunities presented by the 2012 Games. “The Olympics will be a nuisance, with all the construction work needed close by, and tourists around when the Games get going,” says Walker. “I don’t think that the Olympics will really throw up more business.”
Thomerson adds: “I can’t see the Olympics making a difference to the market because we trade when the general public is asleep. If they are going to start building a lot of new homes then that would mean a need for more retailers and restaurants, and, therefore, more trade. But as far as we are aware there are no plans for that, so it doesn’t look like there will be a huge spin-off for the market.”
But the ‘Olympic effect’ will transcend the 2012 date set for the big event, according to Heppel, creating opportunities for important development. “The crux of the matter is what will happen after the Olympics, and we would like to see Hackney Marshes obtained by the City of London,” he says.
Hutchinson agrees, adding: “There is a possibility that the City of London could be in the position to negotiate with the government, perhaps exchanging land for areas near Spitalfields, such as Hackney Marshes or Hackney Wick. We will have to wait and see.”
LORD MAYOR’S VISIT TO SPITALFIELDS MARKET
New Spitalfields received its annual visit from the Lord Mayor of London on July 12.
The Lord Mayor David Brewer and the Lady Mayoress Tessa Brewer were given an early morning tour of the market, accompanied by the mayor of Waltham Forest, Mashoodul Farooq Qureshi, and representatives from the City of London and the Spitalfields Market Tenant’s Association (SMTA).
“Spitalfields is the premier market in London, and we have confidence for the future,” says Chris Hutchinson, chairman of the SMTA. “The recent judgement from the House of Lords was disappointing, but we are committed to the market, and that is our most valuable commodity. All we want is a level playing field.”
“It has been 15 years since we relocated, and we have a lot to look forward to. The Olympics, bringing the planned Channel Tunnel rail link and other developments to the area, could provide major opportunities for the market.”
Hutchinson talked the Lord Mayor through the new health and safety regulations at Spitalfields and the possibilities opened up by the Olympics.
The party was taken on a tour of the market, where the Lord Mayor stopped to meet traders and taste fruit, before being invited to a formal breakfast.
Hutchinson presented the Lord Mayor with a £500 donation for the Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2006, the Treloar Trust, which enables disabled children to take their place in the local community.
“Spitalfields is a window to the city of London, and I can see the hard work and the high quality of service here,” said the Lord Mayor. “The knowledge and experience of the traders here is fantastic, and there are people working here from all parts of the world.
“I have learnt all about the different seasons today, and I have had a fruit salad as I toured the market. This has been a thrill. You will always have the support of the City of London.”
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