Page 16 - Market Times June 2022
P. 16

16 MARKET TIMES • JUNE 2022 Who’s that with NMTF
CEO Joe Harrison?
NMTF CEO Joe Harrison was on a field visit to Columbia Road Flower Market in East London recently when he bumped into the most famous butler of all.
Jim Carter, best known as Mr Carson in the TV series and movies Downton Abbey, was visiting the Sunday market from his home a few miles away in West Hampstead.
But while Joe quizzed him at length he refused to say whether or not he did it.
Leeds market butcher ‘forced out by too high rent’
   MALCOLM LEARY was just 14 when he got a Saturday job in Leeds Kirkgate Market’s Butch- ers Row. At that time the famous Edwardian market where Marks & Spencer began life was at its bustling peak and Butchers Row was its beating heart.
“There were 19 butchers. The noise and banter was incredible and everyone got on,” said Malcolm. A highlight was 4pm on a Saturday when the butchers “called out” their remaining meat to members of the public looking for a bargain for Sunday lunch.
Malcolm started working full-time for the butchers where his uncle, Michael Saynor, was manager at 16.
When his uncle told him he wanted to set up business on his own, Malcolm told him he would join him, but as a partner, not an employee.
They set up Malcolm Michaels in 1993 and the business thrived.
But Malcolm said his life changed in 2014 when Leeds City Council closed Butchers Row to facilitate a major
development, including a boutique hotel which has never materialised.
Malcolm said he took a large unit in the main market after being told of plans for a CDM, a Covered Daily Market, in the large area in front of his unit with 50 stalls, which would vary day to day, and for which there were already 200 applicants.
He said he was also told there would be a fresh produce section behind his stall.
On that basis he says he invested £200,000 in his extensive stall, pictured here in 2018.
“But none of that happened and the footfall in the market really went down, which made life very difficult for me considering the big investment I had put in and the level of rent,” he said.
Malcolm recovered his business by diversifying and serving the multicultural community with their choice of product alongside his traditional meat offer.
But from there Malcolm says his relationship with the market management deteriorated and despite a
  The impressive stall in Leeds Kirkgate Market, pictured in 2018
remarkable recovery during the height of the pandemic when his meat stall was very busy, he decided to call it a day because of the high rent he was paying.
“I have worked in Kirkgate Market since 1983 and it was an absolute wrench to make that decision to leave, but the high rent meant it was simply not viable to trade there any more,” Malcolm said.
He has now moved lock, stock and barrel to the Crossgates Centre, an indoor shopping centre in a suburb of East Leeds.
“We moved in on Friday, May 13, and the future is now looking so much
better,” he said. “Some of my old market customers have found me, though I really miss the multicultural side of the business.
“Shoppers here want more of a traditional British offer, but my son, Marcus, wants to have a future in the business and there was no future in Leeds market,” he said.
Leeds City Council said in a statement that in the past 18 months it had supported traders with rent concessions of about one million pounds and it was confident the market remained an attractive and exciting retail destination for new businesses
Malcolm Leary at his new shop in an east Leeds shopping centre







































































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