Geraud UK, owner of Liverpool wholesale fruit and vegetable market, has this week begun a nine-week evaluation of the market’s potential with a view to creating a “future-proof” market for the north-west.
Liverpool City Council has identified the Edge Lane location of the market as a strategically important site, obliging Geraud, which took on ownership of the site in 2003, to undertake research to define the future direction of the market and its tenants.
Groupe Geraud has enlisted the help of Jean-Michel Gressard, a French consultant employed extensively by Semmaris, the authority at Rungis market in Paris, both in its developmental work in France and abroad.
His first move was a week-long visit to the UK to build a realistic perspective on the future of Liverpool’s wholesale trade. “The reality of the matter is that the existing site is physically and functionally obsolete,” said Tony Fraser, Geraud UK’s deputy chief executive. “The three options are to redevelop, move or close the market. The existing site requires so much money spending on it that we are not sure it would be viable. We are not contractually obliged to look for another site, but we are looking at the options available to us. With the rate of growth of Liverpool and its surrounding areas, for the city to have no wholesale market would be unthinkable.”
Gressard’s initial impression was that Liverpool should not be looking to copy continental markets, or indeed other markets in the UK. Fraser said: “We believe that we need to develop an entirely new concept here. We need to build a market that is future-proof, one that is not just good for today, but for the next 25 or 50 years.”
One potential site has been identified, at the junction of East Lancs Rd and the M57 and, at this early stage, there are thoughts that fresh produce and flower wholesalers could be joined in a new “food hub” by their meat and fish counterparts.
“We have asked the experts to come and give us the benefits of their expertise and hopefully, at the end of the next nine weeks we will have a clearer view of our way forward,” said Fraser. “There is a lot of support for the concepts already in existence, now it is a case of pulling it all together and making sure it stacks up financially.”
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