Page 21 - Market Times June 2021
P. 21

FEATURE • CREWE
and the cheese and bacon stall my nan liked.”
Having seen the success of new-style markets like Altrincham and the Picture Dome in Macclesfield, Jordan knew the new venture would work, and was only too happy to invest in a wood fired oven and the extraction facilities that necessitated.
“Although we have only been open a short time I will need to take on two more staff because of the demand.”
Samantha Dickson and her partner Anthony Unsworth, who launched their new cheesecake business, Buttery Biscuit Base, on the market are also looking to recruit two members of staff.
Samantha left her career in sales and Anthony gave up his engineering job after Samantha started finding success with the cheesecakes she began making in lockdown.
“Family and friends loved them and suggested I started selling them through social media,” she said. “It went crazy so we started selling at a charity market, then at a makers market.”
When she saw the market hall Samantha knew straight away it was the ideal place
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 for a business like theirs to launch, and her sales skills won her the opportunity.
“To be honest, we have been completely overwhelmed by the demand here. We keep selling out so we need to employ a couple of people to help us keep up,” she said.
Steve and Maria Daniels have a similar story to tell. “I was working as an operations manager and Maria was in child care, but we both have a passion for great coffee,” he said.
“At some point you have to follow your heart and take that risk,” Steve said. The couple invested in a converted horsebox with the aim of selling coffee at events, then the pandemic struck.
Fortunately they were successful in getting a unit in the market and business is booming. “We feel blessed to be here with like-minded traders in a bright, friendly market,” he added.
Former accountant Lisa White is also living her dream. “I began on a sustainable journey about six years ago and I loved a shop near where I used to live which sold eco products and offered a refill service.”
When she moved to Crewe she decided
to start a similar business and BYOC — Bring Your Own Container — is rapidly attracting environmentally concerned shoppers who want to buy green products and fill their own containers with everything from pasta to muesli.
Crewe’s produce stalls are a work in progress. Teja Vaddala is doing well with The Crewe Asian Store selling fruit, veg and Asian food products.
Teja left his career in software engineering to follow his passion for authentic Asian, and in particular Indian food products and cuisine.
“I simply love the Indian food from southern India where I grew up and I am now following my heart and selling it in the market hall,” Teja said.
The new store has been welcomed, particularly by people who love cooking Asian dishes and previously had to travel to Manchester or Stoke to get the authentic ingredients, he said.
And Teja said the strong social media promotion was bringing in new customers all the time.
Richard said a new butcher should take up a neighbouring stall soon, and there had been a big increase in enquiries from would-be traders now the market had opened its doors to the public. It seems likely that a third produce trader will be found soon.
“We have done an awful lot of promotion on social media and it seems that people really want to visit this venue and eat, drink, shop and socialise after the lockdowns,” he added.
The addition of the entertainment programme should firmly seal the success of the market hall which now offers so much more than cheese and cleaner repairs.
  FACTS & FIGURES
l Market Days: Wednesday to Sunday
l Market Rent: 20 per cent of turnover for food and drink traders. Leases have a six-month mutual break clause
l Crewe’s claim to fame: Crewe in Cheshire is most famous as a railway town. It developed around a key railway junction and was home to a major railway engineering works. The town was also a base for manufacturing Rolls-Royces and the Pyms Lane factory now exclusively produces Bentley cars.
 Former accountant Lisa White has launched BYOC – Bring Your Own Container – offering eco products and the chance to buy everything from muesli to pasta without unnecessary packaging
    Teja Vaddala, who runs the Crewe Asian Store on the market, left his career in software engineering to follow his passion and launch an Asian fruit and veg and food products store on the market hall
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