Bradford wholesale market wants to enhance customers’ “experience” by landscaping the surrounding area to encourage new business.
For two weeks in September the market is waiving the entrance fee to the site, as an incentive for new retailers and buyers to see what’s on offer.
Johnathan Kershaw, president of the tenants' association and director at Burbank Produce, said: “We are investing in landscaping the market and putting new signs up. At the end of September we are making entrance free to the market for two weeks to encourage new business.
“The new landscaping will be done, we’re going to get it looking nice and then invite people in. We’re going to get new signage, new gates and cut all of the shrubs back.”
All customers pay £60 for a year’s access to the market, or £5 per visit, while traders pay £20 a year. This money is put into a redevelopment fund, and has recently been spent on updating the market’s CCTV system and building a new carpark.
Funds from the entrance fee money will now be used to fund the landscaping work and new signage, Kershaw said.
Market manager, Nirmal Bassi, said that the market is also looking at new ways to dispose of green waste, after previous contractor Yorkshire Water stopped collecting it.
A feasibility plan for an on-site anaerobic digester took place recently, although Bassi said this is likely to be too expensive for the tenants. But he said that if the tenants wished to follow it up, the council would make inquiries.
Food bank charity FareShare also visited the market this week to discuss diverting some food waste to food banks, Bassi said.
Kershaw, president of the tenants' association and director at Burbank Produce, said: “We are big on the environmental side. Recycling creates income.”
The market has previously invested in solar panels, in order to cut electricity costs and reduce reliance on the National Grid.
