The sun might not be up yet, but the wholesale traders at Borough Market have already done a day’s work as they scribble down orders and shift pallets stacked high with top-notch fruit and vegetables. The three remaining firms have long formed the backbone of one of London’s most iconic markets, away from the daytime crowds and the well-known retail stalls piled up with everything from fresh produce to British cheese, artisan breads, high-end chocolate and cold-pressed olive oils.
The wholesale firms - EA Sugarman, A&W Bourne and G Rowe (Mushroom Sales) Ltd - share the market with 126 retailers and together, the award-winning market brings in around £2.5 million a year.
But behind the scenes, what started with a letter from the seven-strong board of trustees to the wholesale traders almost exactly one year ago giving them two months’ notice to quit has escalated into a make-or-break fight for tenants.
The traders originally had leases that were due to run until 2014, but the Borough Market (Southwark) Trust has issued an ultimatum to tenants who refuse to leave or to accept reductions to their trading space. Two wholesale tenants have already left the market, with C&C Fruit Co closing its doors at the end of June and L Booth moving to a nearby site on Druid Street at the end of August.
The situation is expected to come to the fore in the next month, when the remaining wholesalers will submit their final proposal in a bid to reach a compromise with the trustees.
So what is really happening at Borough Market? FPJ visited the market this month to try to get to the bottom of the friction and found the wholesalers trying to get on with day-to-day business amid confusion and uncertainty.
Tenants’ association chairman and trader Andrew Sugarman has united the wholesale traders and is trying to find a way forward for them. “At the moment, they haven’t offered us as a group anything different,” he says. “We have made it clear to the trustees that their proposals will not allow us to constitute a wholesale market. So far, we have given them two alternative proposals to try to reach a compromise, but they have been rejected.
“I am not convinced that they want a wholesale market here. The board has given us one or two conditions that we are in the process of fulfilling and once that’s done, we will make a final proposal. If they won’t renegotiate, we will have to see whether we will fight a court case or relocate - but our primary aim is to stay here and operate as a wholesale market.
“The situation came to a head at the end of last year, when the board of trustees started questioning the legality of the leases. Up to that point, we had been communicating face to face. Then we got a letter from their solicitors and things deteriorated from there.
“We are trying to bring things to head because we don’t know what is going on, it’s hanging over our heads and people are worried for their jobs,” he continues. “You’ve got to hope that the board of trustees has a plan, but we just want to know what it is.”
This is the latest in a number of challenges for the Borough Market wholesalers, who returned to the site three years ago following a temporary move to make way for the Thameslink project and extensive refurbishment.
Now, the traders are convinced that there needs to be at least three companies on the site for it to function as a market but the state of limbo has put a stop to investment, as they are reluctant to put money into businesses facing an uncertain future. On top of this, the solicitors’ fees alone are so far estimated to have exceeded £40,000.
The traders have gone as far as to look at alternative locations in the area, but they stress that this is a last resort.
Martin Bourne, who heads wholesale firm A&W Bourne and whose family firm has been on the market for more than 100 years, insists that it’s “their way or no way” when it comes to negotiations with the trustees and that it is time for the wholesalers to put a deadline on their dealings with the management. “Whatever happens, we have to carry on running the business,” he says. “We haven’t given it a deadline, but it’s getting to that stage.”
Geoff Rowe, who runs G Rowe (Mushroom Sales) and has worked on the market for 38 years, claims that the wholesalers are being “persecuted” and that they need help. This, he stresses, could be the last hope for the market as it is today. “We need Boris Johnson or Prince Charles to back us because [the board of trustees] is walking all over us,” says Rowe. “They are taking away so many people’s livelihoods and what they are doing is disgusting… All they have done from day one is told us that we are not entitled to this and that. If someone can explain to us that [the management] is right, we will hold our hands up and say ok.
“But we are just trying to make a living and we are here doing what we have done for years and years without any aggravation. What has suddenly changed?”
In fact, there are a number of questions in all this that need answering. Are the board of trustees, through failing to negotiate past this stand-off with the wholesale tenants, going against its charity status by potentially evicting firms that serve a public purpose in providing affordable fruit and vegetables to independent retailers, restaurants and street traders in the surrounding area? And should the charity be diverting funds to fight this case?
On the other hand, what can the traders do to help themselves when it comes to thrashing out new agreements with the management?
Borough Market spokesperson Ceri Evans maintains that the management and trustees are “committed to sustaining and growing Borough Market through innovation, new lifeblood in wholesale and retail and through rigorous standards of produce and operations”.
He admits that the dispute has “shaken faith” in the market, but stresses that the management “doesn’t want a court case and has never sought one”.
“The trustees are in a state of change from the old guard to a newer group of people who are determined to see the market reconnect to its community roots and professionalise its operations, which was not always the case previously,” Evans explains. “The new trustees and management are overhauling clarity of purpose and quality of produce and operations - an overhaul that is much needed.
“It is absolute rubbish that the management does not care about the wholesalers,” he stresses. “We can’t stay true to our roots if we are not a wholesale market first.
“One of the things that the management feels very strongly about is that there’s a wave of wholesalers now who haven’t necessarily been in it all their family lives, but who are looking at providing products from much closer by or have got very interesting provenance for their products.
“We want to make sure that the wholesale offer stays as innovative and as current as the retailers. On the retail side, we have very specialist stalls and what we want to make sure is that the wholesale offer remains as fresh and cutting edge as the retail offer is. There are quite a few younger companies who are starting to look at these kinds of products. They want to see the same level of new blood for wholesale as they have for retail.”
According to the management, there is a waiting list of 40 firms ready to take up wholesale spots and two new wholesalers are set to join in the next month or so.
In the meantime, the funds earmarked to fight the case have been agreed with the Charity Commission but the sum is not being disclosed at the moment because, according to Evans, “we are hoping that the case does not go ahead”.
“We have never wanted to see money spent on legal fees and costs, by either side,” he says.“We have given the wholesalers in question every opportunity to renegotiate their leases and have attempted to maintain a dialogue with them throughout.”
So where does this leave the three remaining wholesale tenants, who have been on the market for generations? And will they survive this “overhaul”, as the board of trustees attempts to change the market’s core offer?
“We are trying to boost the variety and the range, not add glitter and jazz,” says Evans. “To be honest, it is a revolution - but it has been very difficult with the allegations of the wholesalers.
“The trustees are looking for independent retailers who bring innovative products and they want to keep the retailers and wholesalers in step. They want to see who’s out there doing different things.”
The moves made by the management are causing controversy, not just within but also outside the market.
George Nicholson, former chair of the board of trustees until 2006 and chair of the development committee from 1995, claims that the “market world is looking on aghast at what is going on”. He oversaw the well-documented revival of the market from a near derelict state to a thriving centre for all kinds of quality food and fears that the latest turn of events “will damage the image of Borough Market and stain the brand irreparably”.
He is concerned that the trustees are “on a course to destroy the wholesale market”.
“When I was chair, the wholesalers were given leases and security and now that has been withdrawn,” says Nicholson. “It is bizarre that one of the foundation stones of the Borough Market is effectively being destroyed. Traders have been there for more than 100 years. To kick away one of the legs of the market doesn’t make any sense. It’s tragic for the market and desperately tragic for the companies that have been there through thick and thin - it’s perverse that the people who have underpinned the market for so long are being shown the door.
“The market world is looking on aghast at what is going on and it won’t be long before consumers themselves will do the same. If things carry on as they are, people will reassess whether they want to shop there as consumers and I include myself in that.”
He insists that the role of the trustees is to hold the land in perpetuity, while the traders themselves run the market, but he claims there has been “a blurring of the two”.
“The board is fundamentally misunderstanding its role - it seems to be acting like a property company with a limited vision for what a market is and what it should be,” says Nicholson. “It’s not too late for the trustees to come to their senses, realise what damage they are doing and come to an agreement with the wholesalers. It should never have come to this stage.
“I would like to see the market back on the course it was before, as one of the most important wholesale markets in the UK. The market is historically important and still is.”
One thing is clear, and it is that at this rate the conflict is far from being resolved and could end up in court if action isn’t taken on both sides. On the one hand is the historical significance of the market and the future of the businesses that have spanned generations, while on the other is the new vision laid out by the trustees. How Borough Market will shape up rides on the outcome of this dispute, but let’s hope for the sake of all involved that a resolution is reached soon.
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