Things were already in full swing by 4am during a tour with Kapiris Bros in March 2016, and the company’s Managing Director, Harry Kapiris, says this is to do with the location of the site.
“It’s further out from the city than the old site, so buyers have to come in earlier to get what they need and meet their schedules for the day.”
Initially, some standholders were concerned that the new site would limit them due to the distance from the city and the higher overhead costs. But Mr Kapiris says that things changed when they moved into the new centre.
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“It’s much better here, there’s more order and less risk of being run over by a forklift,” he jokes.
“You’ve got walkways and little highways for the buggie cars. Forklifts aren’t allowed in the main part of the market, but even in the growers section they are safer than before. We also have more warehouse space here – some people didn’t even have that at the old market.”
The custom-built Melbourne Market facility opened in August 2015, moving from west Melbourne to the suburb of Epping, approximately 26km north of the city centre.
The move was part of an 11-year development project by the state government, which runs the Melbourne Market. The Epping site was announced in 2004 and went under development shortly after.
Several delays through the planning and building stages led to an opening in August 2015. For Kapiris Bros, the length of the development process gave them an opportunity to develop their own state-of-the-art facility near the new market site. They are now based less than 1 kilometre from the Melbourne Market site, which has helped speed up their entire operations process.
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“It was a long time coming, and it needed to happen,” Mr Kapiris says.
The main part of the market is shaped like a capital “E”, with the major storeholders located along the “spine” and the two outer edges. The central part is dedicated to the growers market, where smaller growers rent out car-sized spaces for their produce.
Each of the main trading stores was allocated by ballot, and rent is the same for all of them. There is a clear shift in pace on the two outer sides of the main trading areas, with less people and traffic than the central area on the day of the tour.
Kapiris Bros Director of Sales and Marketing, Steve Tsakoumakis, says that standholders in these two outer wing areas have begun strategically focusing on ways to stand out from other businesses in the market.
“A buyer can go along the central part and probably get most of what they need, whereas the two outer areas might not be visited unless the buyer knows what’s there,” he says.
“For some businesses, that’s meant they’ve needed to differentiate themselves in some way, such as with the produce they offer or the way it’s packaged.”
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In the growers’ section of the market – which is in the heart of the facility – there is also a wider variety of produce, with speciality items such as prickly pears on display alongside multi-coloured beans, capsicum and other seasonally grown fruit and vegetables.
This area is where growers come to sell their produce directly, and is usually the first stop for buyers. Mr Tsakoumakis says it’s a case of “first in, best dressed”, particularly when compared to the bigger standholders in the main part of the market who typically have more stock in their warehouses and on-site storage areas.
“The growers really only sell what they bring, and then they’ll go back to their farm and start all over again,” he says.
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As you walk through the market, the atmosphere is charged with people busy doing trade and chatting with one another. There’s joking between some of the standholders, and it feels like a focused and friendly place to be.
Workers usually start arriving around 11pm or 12am, to get ready for the main trading times, which starts in the early hours of the morning and usually wraps up by 7:00am.
In comparison, trade at the previous market used to continue on until about 8am – the difference is partly due to the new site’s distance from the city.
“Buyers have to factor in transport time for all their produce, so things generally wrap up a lot earlier at this site than they used to,” Mr Tsakoumakis says.
For more information:
Karen Whitener
Kapiris Bros
Tel: +61 3 8401 1000
Email: karenw@kapirisbros.com.au
www.kapirisbros.com.au
Melbourne Market
Tel: +613 9258 6100
Email: info@melbournemarkets.com.au
www.melbournemarkets.com.au