George Bray has been chairman of Western International Market Tenants’ Association (WIMTA) since a new market was merely the stuff of thought bubbles. Bray, owner of B&S Fruits, is as excited as anyone to see physical evidence that all the work is finally paying off. “The council first said it was time to build a new market in 1994 and I’ve often felt like the boy who cried wolf through the last 12 years,” he says. “There have been so many issues: planning issues, investigations by English heritage over burial sites, problems with slow worm preservation, archaeological digs, surveys of roads and traffic flows. But there has always been a will to get on and do it.”
Interestingly, London Borough of Hounslow’s (LBH) insistence that the crumbling WI site was not suited to the modern wholesale age came months before the Strathclyde Report that irrevocably altered perceptions of the UK wholesale market scene. LBH initially based its advice on a rapidly deteriorating market infrastructure, rather than the impending reduction in numbers predicted by the report. It has been proved right, as WI has retained healthy occupancy rates throughout one of the darker periods in the sector’s history.
Another 12 years of scant investment in the market infrastructure, as landlord and tenants alike await the inevitable relocation, has quickened its degeneration. But the tenants have risen above the standard of their surroundings, and 70 robust businesses will make the short trip to the new site.
“There has been some investment in health and safety, but no cosmetic work really, from both management and individual tenants,” says Bray. “But there will be a huge investment involved with the move. We have managed to secure a £1 million contribution from the council, which will be a big help.”
It is estimated that each tenant will spend between £20,000 and £70,000 on the refit and relocation, depending on size, but it should be noted that the investment needed to bring the existing facilities up to scratch would be considerably higher.
Original plans had space for around 60 tenants, but following a judicial review, all tenants were granted the right to space at the new site. Seventy of the existing 75 tenants are making the move, with the only big-name refusal being AFI Redbridge, which has chosen to close its Western International operation. “There are more tenants than we originally expected when the plans were drawn up,” says Bray, “so inevitably, the space available for each company has reduced.”
Andrew Owen, at Owen & Owen, sees the move as the opportunity to improve the business - and his view is shared by many of the traders. “We haven’t invested any money in this business for the last five years because of the move, and it is falling to bits,” he says.
“We can’t wait,” says Charles Rees, manager of Vitacress Sales’s UK wholesale network, which bases itself at Western. “We’ve been under notice since October 1995 and it’s long overdue, I’m really pleased it’s actually happening. It’s all positive, we are moving to a new, clean environment which is compatible with anything the food industry needs.
“For us, although trading remains good, the market has got a bit tired and it has been difficult to recruit people because of the dated surroundings. We will be one of the bigger firms in the new site and we’re looking forward to having two fully temperature-controlled units, for both produce and flowers.” This will virtually eradicate the time-consuming and cold-chain busting process of double handling, he says, adding: “That’s a huge area for us.
“Just because we’re one of the biggest, I don’t see our challenges being greater than anyone else,” Rees says. “I think they are the same size for everyone and one of the key things will be to change mindsets. We have a relatively young team in place and we’re raring to go.”
Bob Webster, at HG Walker, is equally positive about the relocation in the long term. “No one is looking forward to the actual move, but once we settle in it will be better. There will be less display space, but we don’t know how that’s going to work out until we see it - and I would like to have been given more room.
“But the new market will be cleaner and more modern, and it is a sign of the times that we will have a smaller area.”
Ian Conn, at Premier Fruit, is also optimistic about starting afresh. “I am very excited about moving - it will bring some new life into the market. Trade has got a bit complacent and the move should rejuvenate it. We are going to cold-store the whole premises because we feel that is the way forward.”
But, as alluded to by Webster, there remain some reservations in the market halls - and the downsizing of the market is one of the top concerns for WI traders.
Saleem Perwaz, at Saliko, says reducing the available space and not the number of companies will make the day-to-day running of market very difficult - and this is a widely held view. “When they originally told us that the new market was going to be two thirds of the size of the existing one, we thought a smaller market would be a healthier one - and that the downsizing would get rid of some of the cowboys, so to speak,” he says. “But there will be nearly the same number of people moving, and we will all have to work in a more confined space.”
Peter Cooper, at Peter Cooper, concurs that operational space will be very limited. “The majority of the stands are going to be very narrow, and the room you will have to operate in will be greatly reduced. And if you have racking on both sides, it’ll make it hard to move a forklift.”
Bob Marlow, general site manager. representing corporate property development for LBH, says: “I think there are bound to be negative comments, because it’s an unknown. Nobody wants to go through a period of change, and tenants have been accustomed to a larger site. But we need a more efficient market and we can only work within the parameters of the land we have. In partnership with Kier Property, the council has used the land judiciously to enable the whole development.
“To have the availability and opportunity of a new purpose-built wholesale market in 2007 is a much bigger benefit than perhaps some tenants realise at this point,” says Marlow. “The present infrastructure is past its extended and viable life. We’re in the 21st century food chain business and the tenants absolutely need a facility that enables them to meet the legislative requirements for all food businesses.”
Sixty of the tenants at the new site will be produce wholesalers, housed in a 136,000sqft facility and six flower traders and four catering companies will share another 38,000sqft. All will benefit from the state-of-the-art facility, says Bray. “They are going to have a brand new, secure, food-safe market. The working conditions will be far cleaner, there will be more refrigeration, better phone systems, dedicated forklift lanes, no potholes etc - all in all a more conducive environment in which to trade.”
Bray does not deny that traders have a fair point. “The concerns of the tenants are absolutely pertinent,” says Bray. “But unless we had done it this way and accepted that we had to fit the new market into 19 acres, we couldn’t have moved. And it was a choice of moving or watching this place fall down around our ears.”
However, he adds: “It’s obviously true that the size of the old and new market are very different and the communal area is far smaller without a doubt. The trading area and the storage space is about the same. We have been blessed with all this space for so many years and we have got used to it,” Bray says.
“But there is a potential problem in terms of access for lorries and parking for customers will be a bit tighter. The trouble is that these days there are a lot of multi-drops. One articulated lorry can be dropping at eight different companies, which means it has to pull up eight times.”
Paul Smith, at Smith & Son, rates logistics and the loss of parking as a top concern for traders. Steve Boniface, at C&B Salads, agrees. “You hear rumours that there will not be any lorries allowed in after 2am, when they can come any time now,” he says. “This could have a serious effect on business.”
But a sympathetic Bray still says a new attitude is needed. “There will need to be a change of culture, which we are already trying to influence. But until people see the absolute need, it is not always easy to understand the reasons for change. It might well be a shock when we first move to the new market, but traffic management has to be far better than it has ever been. The crux of that is that the tenants’ association and the council will work very closely to try to ensure that the system is ready. It will be a fairly tight space and we cannot afford congestion.”
“The new site is over-subscribed,” says Richard Day, market manager for LBH. “There’s no doubt we could do with more space than we’ve got. Operational traffic flow is going to be a challenge. We are of course taking measures now to assimilate what we will go through.”
Logistically, Vitacress’s Rees feels better traffic flow could have a huge impact. “It’s our perception that we are last stop in many companies’ deliveries to London wholesale markets, which means we get deliveries later and sometimes miss out altogether because of the traffic. But if we can speed up the flow of vehicles round the market, we could bump ourselves up the list and address a number of issues.”
“Bearing in mind the customer is king, this site will better facilitate all buyers,” says Day. “And while that has always been paramount, the new market will be better suited for the customer-oriented approach. There will be a different entry system, to allow customers to load up and leave quickly. It is not a social occasion for them to be here at 4.30 in the morning and our parking rates will work on a sliding scale that will involve an initial low tariff to encourage buyers to optimise their time in the market.”
Rees says: “We have to take advantage of the site to improve our offer to customers and to attract both staff and customers through the gates. There are plenty of people looking for manual labour in this area and while recruitment is not a unique problem in this market by any means, we are competing in the area of Heathrow, so people have options.
“I think we’ve all been guilty to an extent of perpetuating the story that it’s doom and gloom in the wholesale sector and there has been no real encouragement for younger people to come into the markets.”
Now’s the time for the positive side of the industry to shine through, adds Rees: “With a new market, it’s our job to encourage people that we have a bright future. And hopefully, we will also see different customers coming to the market, people that didn’t consider the market before or had come here in the past and were put off by the site itself.
“We have to be realistic and accept that the sector in which we are standing is likely to shrink overall, rather than grow. I understand the concerns that the new site will be too small, but I think it will be a much more efficient use of land and it appears we will all have enough space to trade. If we are sensible - and we’ve got to be - we will recognise that we have taken the amount of space we have now for granted. I think all companies will look at themselves internally and become more efficient.”
Attitudinal change is vital and the council has already succeeded in turning tenants on to their responsibilities in areas such as waste management and recycling. Old habits die hard - like parking in the same space for 25 years and using car parking capacity to store product - but the less efficient habits will have no place in modern surroundings.
“You will never get a better opportunity to change mindsets and practices than when you move to a brand new site. We’re going to have a clean sheet of paper and we don’t want to spoil it,” says Bray.
Project manager Dick Woodcock, of Shaping Change, was brought in by WIMTA to liaise with tenants and contractors to ensure that the needs of tenants are met. “I am keeping an eye on all the ongoing issues,” he says, “and checking all the specs are being followed, while talking to the tenants individually, to gauge what they want in the new market, plan and discuss how it can be achieved and whether they can afford it.
“It isn’t a tough job. They all know their businesses very well and what they need. What they perhaps don’t understand fully is about building structures and how they can achieve what they need to within them.”
The generally agreed finishing time for the contractors is the end of June, 2007, from which time tenants have six months to fit out their stands and the communal area of the market, for a final opening date at the beginning of 2008. “June is when the clock really starts ticking for us,” says Bray. Woodcock admits to generally erring on the side of caution timings wise, but adds: “I think there will be enough time to get the work done.” His conservative nature, however, would have asked for more.
With such an exhaustive planning process, the hope is that day one will arrive and the transition will be seamless. As everyone knows, it rarely happens that way. “Obviously we hope we have got all the bases covered, but you can guarantee we’ll move in and someone will say ‘why didn’t you think of that?’” Bray says.
“The main teething problem will be BT, it always is,” says Woodcock. “It doesn’t matter what degree of control you have over things and how good the design and management, there will be concerns around telecommunications. But the good thing is we are aware of that and we’ve got a long time to make sure it’s right.”
The products and the tenants will have a nice new home then, but one of the key components of this move, as it should be, is the customer base. Bray says: “No-one likes change, but all of the customers I’ve spoken to are really looking forward to coming to a clean environment and a nice new market. We are already talking about co-ordinating positive promotion in the local area, both to existing customers and to try and bring in more customers to the site.”
Day adds: “A working group consisting of tenants representatives and market management will meet regularly to discuss ways of raising the profile of the market and how to target specific areas and customers. The council is very keen to assist tenants in their efforts to push the market forward. And I would like to see more tenants involved in the process. Time has become very valuable commodity and the pressures on the businesses have led to more owner operators carrying the onus for their individual firms.”
The Greater London Authority predicts a slight increase in the trade moving through the capital’s wholesale markets in its projections through to 2026. And the composite market concept is certainly not anathema to Bray, particularly as the council still has 32 acres of undeveloped greenbelt land adjacent to the new site. “We are definitely not closed to that prospect. There is a lot more space available here, but first we need to go out and find customers.”
Western is not bound by any particular restrictions on face-to-face sales, and Day believes that composite sites will become a reality at some stage in the future. “It is a big investment for companies to come in and trade at a certain level, but I think there will be companies here that want to extend their businesses into other food areas. It will be a natural process, not forced, as tenants react to the needs of their customers and add lines on accordingly.”
Nick Saphir talked about the public good offered by markets in his review of London’s wholesale sector, a fact that has not been lost on LBH. “This is an extremely important development for the LBH, although not the biggest we are involved with, but it provides great benefit to the local community and the public good. Western offers great opportunities for local employment, there is a range of diverse businesses working in a multicultural environment that fully reflects the make-up of the borough,” says Marlow.
“Hounslow has long had a large Asian community and, in recent years, it has also become home to increasing numbers of migrants from eastern Europe. This dynamic demographic creates a natural affinity with the workings of this wholesale market and with the types of retail customers it serves.”
“While the majority of tenants are selling high-quality products to high-quality customers, some tenants run their business very much on products that need to be moved quickly. It is a very important part of the market and we don’t want to stop that at all. It gives people access to fruit and vegetables that would not have had the opportunity,” says Bray.
“The wholesale sector is still considered by some to be at the lower end of the business, but it is a necessary outlet,” says Marlow. “There is a new balance as some category managers get re-selected and wholesale markets are growing. Growers around the world need produce to be shipped to end consumers at a value to them.”
Marlow has spent most of his working life in the fruit trade. He says the relationship between the landlord and its tenants has improved through interaction and greater understanding of each other’s needs and issues. “Over the past two years, we have reorganised and we now have a group of people who are enthusiastic about and committed to the market. Now tenants have a management team who have a genuine empathy with them and who make it their business to be in the market and talk with them. We also have as good a relationship as there has ever been with the tenants’ association.”
Whether it is access, parking, telecommunications, waste or simply moving, the amount of issues appears daunting, but Day offers the silver lining: “All the issues will be covered in one fell swoop, which is such a bonus. There are businesses that are, for whatever reason, not fully aware of their legislative responsibilities, but the new market will meet all of the new standards required of them by legislators.
“Now is the time for tenants to tailor-make their companies to fit whichever strata of the business they want to target in the future. By putting in the necessary effort, thought and planning, they really can move onto the next level,” he says.
THE END DRAWS NEAR FOR KIER
Kier Developments has been playing a key role in the creation of a new market site for eight years. The company was given 12 acres of freehold as part of the deal to build the new market, on which it will construct a 320,000sqft warehouse facility for an as yet unsigned user.
George Bray says: “If we hadn’t been near the airport, we would not have been able to find anyone to fund the construction of a new market.” And Nigel Turner, commercial director at Kier Property, tells FPJ that at last, the end is near: “We first became involved in the London Borough Of Hounslow’s plans for the redevelopment of WIM in 1998 and we are obviously delighted that after so long in the making, we are actually building the new market and that the tenants and council will be able to move forward into the new facility in 2007,” he says.
“Kier was selected as development partner to the Council following a fairly rigorous OJEC and interview process. Following selection, the detail of the new market specification took a long time to determine. All parties involved had to ensure the new market facility would be suitable for the landlord and tenants’ aspirations to improve the existing market offer and to minimise any overall impact on the surrounding green belt.
“The development also had to be undertaken with minimal disruption to the existing operation. The new market will provide a modern, clean and efficient environment in which Western International can trade in the 21st century.
“From Kier’s perspective, upon completion of the new market facility, and tenant relocations, we will undertake a warehouse and storage development comprising 320,000sqft, principally for distribution uses on the old market site. Given the excellent location of the site in relation to the national motorway network and Heathrow we believe it will be attractive to airport occupiers and distribution companies. The new development site will be available from early 2008.”
No comments yet