Page 32 - MarketTimesDecember2018
P. 32

32 FEATURE • PRESTON
   David Bullock has been managing Preston Market since the year 2000 Gary Quinn runs The Orchard Pub in the new-look Market Hall
Janine Knight sells fresh and artificial flowers, plants and memorials Adrian Livesey who set up his market butchers business in 1983 is on the open market. She is pictured with her son, James very positive about the future after investing £150,000 in his new unit
  Others were near retirement and not every business was suitable for the new-look market. Consultants had suggested a big emphasis on high-quality food that would attract Waitrose and Marks & Spencer food customers.
creatures of habit. If they can’t find the stall where it usually is they will stop using it.”
absolutely freezing in the winter.”
She admits to having had doubts in those cold,
It was perfect for traders like family butcher Adrian Livesey, who started his business on Preston indoor market in 1983.
One outdoor trader, Janine Knight, who sells fresh and artificial flowers, plants and memorials, said: “It has been a hard time and we are still not back to the trade we used to have.”
“Our daughter who studied architecture designed everything and my husband made it,” said Julie. “I use all local ingredients and I buy things like cheese, meat and fruit and veg from traders in the market,” she said.
He was ready and willing to invest £150,000 in a new unit and was one of a number of forward-looking traders who made the move.
But traders in the Market Hall are much more positive. There have been a few teething problems, David admits.
Adrian, who supplies the meat, said: “We are really pleased with this new market hall. It will take a little time to build up a wider customer base, but as far as we are concerned it’s brilliant here.”
Other new traders were attracted by the quality and iconic look of the new building. The market hall is now home to a couple of high quality butchers, a fishmonger, a new fruit and veg, dairy, pickles, three cafes, a couple of street food business — and a bar.
It didn’t help that the Beast from the East descended a couple of weeks after the market opened. The building design features a gap between the top of the glass walls and the Victorian canopy. During the worst of the winter weather, traders and shoppers complained that the market hall was freezing and the wind whipped through the doors and the gap.
And Rebecca Taylor, who helps her parents Tracy and Allan Taylor run their new fruit and veg business on the market, supplies fresh, locally grown veg for Julie’s café business.
A number of non-food lines made the grade including a flower business and a bags and luggage trader.
“My parents have given up a shop because they heard about this market and thought it would be an ideal place to trade,” Rebecca said.
There are still a couple of gaps. “I could have easily filled them but it is important to get exactly the right businesses and the right mix of traders,” David said.
Plans have now been approved to build a porch in front of the lower doors to see if this helps.
“Our business is all about local produce and cutting down on packaging and the use of plastic,” she added.
The outdoor market also lost traders. “To be honest, the outdoor traders have taken a battering. The work meant that traders had to move their stalls several times and shoppers are
Julie Fausset, who realised a lifelong dream and started her coffee shop and café, Brew + Bake in the market in February, said: “My café is right behind the lower doors and it was
Another local businessman who saw an opportunity in the new market was Gary Quinn,
David and his team are trying hard to support this market but acknowledge it will take a little time.
early weeks of trading. “But we had a brilliant summer,” said Julie, who worked in the NHS from school and enlisted her family’s support to realise her dream.









































































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