Across the channel, buyers gather to pick out the best fresh produce, dairy, meat and fish - all under one roof - at Rungis, the famous wholesale hub in the heart of Paris. Every month, seasonal products are promoted - currently Alaskan pollock, Fontainebleau, melon, assorted tapenades and saddle of lamb - a mouth-watering glimpse of what the market has to offer.
The thinking behind a composite market is to make it easier for buyers to access all different types of fresh food in one place, saving them time and money, while growers and producers across different categories benefit from attracting a wider clientele and food miles are reduced. It makes sense, but could the same concept work here?
The question of whether London should have one or several composite markets has been on the city’s agenda more than once. In 2002, wholesale veteran Nicholas Saphir was appointed by the government to write a report on the future of London’s markets. He recommended the closure of Billingsgate and Smithfield, in what would have been the biggest shake-up of London’s wholesale markets since the Middle Ages.
The Corporation of London gave its partial backing to the proposal, and considered the practicalities of relocating Billingsgate and Smithfield to a new composite market at Spitalfields, leaving New Covent Garden and Western International as specialist markets for the catering trade.
Of course, this has not happened. The markets remain intact and Saphir’s report is likely lying at the bottom of a government filing cabinet gathering dust.
The issue was back on the agenda five years later, in June 2007, when another report was issued, the London Wholesale Markets Review, prepared for the Greater London Authority by URS Corporation.
The review stated that the trend towards local food and decreasing food miles is a particularly strong opportunity for wholesale markets, but warned that the foodservice sector is also open to a range of other efficient suppliers varying from major supermarkets and specialist cash-and-carry operators to delivered foodservice wholesalers. “In this environment maintaining the wholesale markets’ current share of the foodservice business will be a challenge,” it warned, adding that key customer groups could easily decline over the next 20 years, meaning that the future prospects for the markets could be limited. “Survival will depend upon increased innovation, customer focus and flexibility. This offers the possibility for the markets to consolidate their position and create a sizeable market niche.”
The review went on to identify seven different options; preserving the status quo, implementing Saphir’s proposed consolidation into three wholesale markets, consolidating the City of London sites at New Spitalfields, consolidating them at New Covent Garden, moving Billingsgate to either NCGM or Spitalfields, having a single composite market in either Bexley or Barking, or having no wholesale market at all.
Five years on, the options still haven’t been narrowed down, but City of London Corporation director of markets and consumer protection David Smith knows where he stands on the issue. “The concept of a number of composite markets in London is a good one in an ideal world but although it would reduce travelling for both suppliers and customers, and result in greater operational and management efficiency all round, there would be a number of serious practical issues to resolve; gaining agreement from the traders that relocation is a good idea; finding sites large enough and close enough to central London; and funding what would be a very substantial construction and relocation project. This isn’t on our agenda at the moment, although informal feedback from a range of commercial customers shows that ideally they would prefer to purchase their products at a composite market similar to Rungis.
However, not everyone agrees. “While a lot of people hold up Rungis as a model, they don’t understand that London is very different in terms of the scale of the city relative to Paris, and the problem of movement in and around the city. Paris is more compact and has better road infrastructure. This fact alone makes the one market unsuitable for London,” says George Nicholson, formerly of Borough Market and currently consultant for Leeds Kirkgate Market and Brixton Village Market.
Nicholson thinks we are moving towards a situation of having a central composite market at New Covent Garden, and that the next decisive step will be when a decision is taken to move Billingsgate - which he says must be in the near future due to its location. “It would make sense to think about merging Billingsgate, Smithfield and Spitalfields in a new site somewhere to the east of London. Western International probably has a continuing role in the future serving west London. This is probably the right configuration of markets for London given its size and, more importantly, one that is politically practical.”
Nicholson says the main hurdle is the lack of any political leadership over the issue. “It simply won’t happen without decisive leadership from central government, the Mayor’s office and the City of London combining over the issue.”
Jan Lloyd, chief executive of New Covent Garden Market, thinks it is unlikely that an agreement will ever be reached. “A number of studies have been carried out on London’s wholesale markets looking at the number, whether they should be composite and where they should be located. However, given the different ownership structures, it is unlikely that there would be agreement by the three main parties concerned as to how this might ever be resolved.”
In the case of New Covent Garden Market, Lloyd has a clear vision of what the market should be - the focus for food and flowers in London. The core will always be wholesaling of fresh produce, she says, however, where tenants offer additional food related items, such as dairy, ice or gourmet ingredients that add value to the core offer, these will be considered.
The role of wholesale markets in the food supply chain is as important as ever, thinks Lloyd, who points out that for many UK producers they offer a route to market that supermarkets don’t. “For large producers wholesalers provide an essential valve for over-production or out-of-spec produce. This is not to say low quality but rather acting as an outlet when there is a glut.”
Equally, for small producers who could never supply the multiples, wholesalers are flexible enough to take short runs of specialist products, in particular varieties that supermarkets are unwilling to handle. Often this type of product can attract premium prices.
Lloyd doesn’t think caterers and restaurants have a view on whether markets are composite or not. “For some there is a value in having consolidated deliveries receiving their meat, fish, fruit and veg off one van, but the high-end restaurants will continue to want specialist meat, fish and fresh produce suppliers. Whether these suppliers are on one site or not wouldn’t matter to them,” she says. “It works on the continent where much of the buying is done in person. But in London, its sheer size and issues of congestion mean that most ordering is done over the phone or by email. Chefs simply do not have the time to come to market regularly.”
So what does Nicholas Saphir make of the situation, 10 years after the publication of his report? “If I were to write another report today, I would reach the exact same conclusion as I did then,” he says, adding that politically it was perhaps not the right time for his report in 2002.
“The business logic of the report stands even stronger now; the eating-out sector is booming despite the recession and the non-supermarket industry is still very important.”
The irony, he says, is that the proposed redevelopment of NCGM, if it goes ahead, would be a step in the wrong direction in terms of moving towards the three composite market sites he first recommended in his report. “That’s a bit tragic.”
The danger, according to Saphir, is that the markets could one day become redundant. He thinks it’s high time stakeholders across the various markets got together gave the future some real thought. “At the moment the pressure is not obvious, but when you wake up to reality it’s too late.” -
