Session -- Wholesale-Retail Interactions: from Producer to Consumer Fiona Whitworth is Director of Strategy at Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, Australia.

1. FIONA WHITWORTH
Wholesale-Retail Interactions:
from Producer to Consumer
Director of Strategy
Queen Victoria Market

2. Sustaining market trading in a
growing city’s market place
26 March 2015
Fiona Whitworth, Director of Strategy
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Australia

3. Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Australia

4. Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Australia

5. “Our vision for a renewed
Queen Victoria Market is a
thriving and diverse market
place, positioned to adapt to
meet the changing needs of
our growing population while
staying true to the core values
that make it loved by locals and
a must see for tourists.”
Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal
Strategic Brief
February 2015

6. Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal
Plans are underway
Strategic Brief, February 2015 Draft Master Plan, March 2015

7. Summary of Draft Master Plan, March 2015

8. “…the ambience, the traders
and the passion for their
product, the freshness and
specialty of each stall.”
What do you value about QVM?
Community feedback
November 2013

9. QVM Today
• Continuously trading since 1878
• 7 hectares (17 acres) of central city
• Over 600 market traders trading on a daily basis
• Day market open 5 days a week
• Day market closed Mondays & Wednesdays
• Seasonal night markets
Facts

10. “No power, no protection from
weather. Trying to run a
modern day business in an
ancient environment is very
difficult. It makes it very hard
for us to keep up with
competition.”
Queen Victoria Market Trader
Sweeney Research Survey
August 2011

11. QVM Today
• Sustaining scale of market trade
• Declining ‘traditional customer’ base
• Customer expectations
• Our heritage listed sheds
• Open air market environment & climate
• External factors influencing supply
Challenges

13. Ambition
To maintain and grow a
diverse, abundant, large scale,
fresh fruit & vegetable offer in
the heart of Melbourne.

14. • Sustainability – economic, environmental, social
• Viability of market trading into the future
• Growth and expansion
• Diversification
• Adaptability
Queen Victoria Market: Planning for the future
Key considerations

15. Early Queen Victoria Market c.1907

16. Queen Victoria Market: Wholesale & Retail
From 1878 to 1969: Melbourne’s main wholesale market, with retail
trade allowed after main wholesale trading time
wholesalers
growers
retailers
business
customers
consumers
merchants

17. Queen Victoria Market 1950s

18. The new Melbourne Wholesale Market, c1970s
“The new building was to have
21 acres under one roof and be
one of the largest market
buildings in the world.”
Building a mammoth
Excerpt from
‘Melbourne Markets: The Story of Fruit and
Vegetable Markets in the City of Melbourne’,
Colin Cole, 1980

19. “The departure of the Fruit and
Vegetable Market to its new
premises at the end of 1969 left
the old Victoria Market site
tenanted only by a popular
retail market … and the
opportunity to redevelop the
vacated site ...”
Markets Planning Associates
The Victoria Centre Proposal, 1969-71
‘Concept C’, The Victoria Centre Proposal, 1969-71

20. “The past and present are
united in this market complex.
The buildings should be
restored and every
encouragement given to the
continued functioning of this
important community service.”
National Trust of Australia
Submission for the Preservation of Queen
Victoria Market, 1973

21. Queen Victoria Market: Retail public market
From 1970s to present: A public retail market, with limited (largely
unquantified) trading to hospitality customers
wholesalers
growers
retailers
business
customers
consumers
merchants

22. Queen Victoria Market Car park 2014

23. Various proposals to upgrade
facilities
Queen Victoria Market: Retail public market
From 1970s to present

24. “The new Epping site is a fresh
start. It is bigger, safer, more
accessible and better
equipped. The huge 70-hectare
site offers over 100,000 square
meters of warehousing space,
and a separate 60-hectare site
adjacent to the Market provides
plenty of room for potential
future expansion into a fresh
food precinct.”
Melbourne Markets
The New Epping Market (website)

25. “The City of Melbourne will
make the largest investment in
its history to preserve and
renew the Queen Victoria
Market…Investing now will
ensure that the Queen Victoria
Market is part of our city
forever…”
Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle
Media release 31 October 2013

26. “Let the market decide. People
are wonderfully creative. They
will come up with
all kinds of things that you
can’t believe. Just make it easy
for them to do it.
And make sure it is not
someone’s fifteenth formulaic
hospitality outlet’.”
Community feedback on renewal plans
Consultation
May 2014

27. Queen Victoria Market: The future
A new strategic vision

28. • Customer expectations
• Increased potential to service hospitality customers
• Expand opportunities for market traders, current and future
Queen Victoria Market: The future
Drivers for change

29. “Australians are shopping
more often, we’re planning
less, and people are using it
also in a way to budget.
Rather than one big shop in a
week or over a fortnight, as
they traditionally did, they’re
spending more often in smaller
amounts.”
Grant O’Brien, CEO of Woolworths
(major Australian supermarket)
The Age Newspaper, 18 February 2015

30. Queen Victoria Market: Future possibilities
Inner Melbourne’s hospitality sector has
experienced major growth in the last decade.

31. • Diversify market trader ‘types’
• Introduce fruit & vegetable casuals or day traders
• Showcase weekly regional farmers markets
• Explore opportunities for provedores, agents, distributors
• Wholesale + retail coexisting again?
Queen Victoria Market: Future possibilities
Expand opportunities for fruit & vegetable market trading

32. Queen Victoria Market: Future possibilities
Market of Markets: Introduce new trading opportunities for growers
and other suppliers. Provide on site services to cater to business
customers.
wholesalers
growers
retailers
business
customers
consumers
merchants
growers
merchants

33. Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Australia

34. Thank you
For further information:
qvm.com.au
participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au