London's Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA) has announced a return to profit and an increase in turnover for the most recent financial year.
CGMA, the statutory corporation which runs the Vauxhall-based fruit, vegetable and flower wholesale site, recorded pre-tax profits of £2 million for the period covering 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014. The previous year had seen CGMA reveal a loss of nearly £800,000 as redevelopment costs hit profitability.
The market's turnover, meanwhile, was up from £590m to £599m. Fruit and veg wholesalers contributed to 28 per cent of this figure (£166m); fruit and vegetable wholesale distributors made up 35 per cent of the market's overall turnover (£212m); and the flower market contributed to eight per cent (£46m).
Jan Lloyd, chief executive of CGMA, said: 'Just as the wider economy is starting to show the first signs of recovery, CGMA continues to perform well. I am particularly pleased that our core business as a whole grew revenues by two per cent.'
This year has seen significant progress in plans for the redevelopment of New Covent Garden Market. At the close of the 2013-14 financial year, CGMA had finalised its detailed masterplan for the new market, and a planning application has now been submitted.
Pam Alexander, chair of CGMA, said: 'Forty years ago when the market moved to Nine Elms it was an industrial backwater.Today, as we look to celebrate the anniversary of that move, the market is at the heart of one of Europe’s biggest opportunity areas. It is the greatest transformational story at the heart of the world’s greatest capital.
'Our redevelopment will see the creation of a new food quarter which in turn will create an identity for the area. It will be a place to trade produce, consume, learn and share. It will be the focus for food in London.'
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