Vinod, The Dosa Street Food (Hebden Bridge Open Market)
The food at my stall is the food I grew up eating. Having been born in India and watching my mother cook traditional food every day. Loving her food, I trained to be a professional chef then I came to the UK. I worked across the catering industry, from 5 star hotels to village-based bistros as Head Chef.
After 15 years in catering, in 2013 I created 'The Dosa Street Food', firstly in Hebden Bridge market. I started with a very small start up budget of only £100 to buy everything. My passion and hard work has proven how you can become very successful. I never thought it will be so loved by so many and my customers would be weekly visitors and friends. Good honest food is always a joy to have!
The food I cook is different from most curries you will eat in Britain. The recipes mainly come from my family and are regional. I only use fresh ingredients and never use any pre-prepared sauces or any colourings or artificial flavourings. I love to cook great food in the great outdoors.
Catherine Cook, Truly Magical Aromas (Elland and Brighouse Open Markets)
Wow….what a journey we have had and it is only just beginning!! It all started when the COVID pandemic began. My girls needed something to keep them busy while in lockdown. We have two daughters aged 20 and 21, one with Autism and one with ADHD. So, a hobby was really important while their lives were on hold.
After lots of research, buying a start up kit and them taking over our kitchen, we had wax melt overload. So we needed a way of selling them. After talking to the Market Manager we got our first stall and we loved it! After a few weeks we started attending Brighouse market too.
One year later we opened our shop in Elland, but we still trade on both markets. When people ask us why, the answer is simple:
If you have a dream or you love making things, come along and try trading at a market. You will love it too and hopefully make some money at the same time!
Olivia, Unit e11even (Halifax Borough Market)
Every morning when I leave my home, I walk into the historic Borough Market to my shop Unit 'e11even'. This has quickly become my second home.
Every day brings something new and this is one of the great things about this beautiful place.
I feel very lucky to be able to honestly say that I love my work here.
Sam's Pizzas (Hebden Bridge)
I started our market business in September 2020. This was after being made redundant early in the pandemic, which left us with no furlough or Government support. At first, we thought it would just be short term, but it has been a success. It is so much more pleasant working for ourselves, that I think we will be here for the foreseeable future.
We now have a healthy work life balance that is not achievable working in catering and hospitality. You just have to keep your eye on the weather sometimes!
Michael Bryson, Grosvenor's Butchers (Halifax Borough Market)
Video transcript
Your business, your way - Grosvenors, Halifax Borough Market case study - Video Transcript
I am Michael Bryson, I run Grosvenor's butchers in the Borough Market Halifax. Grosvenors has been a well-established business in the market for a lot, a lot of years. I started in the Borough Market in 1983 working for a very busy butcher shop, which is just around the corner from where we were. I served my time there and I bought Grosvenors with a good friend of mine in 2005 and I have seen some massive changes in this market over the years.
We came in with a lot of ideas of how we wanted to change the shop. Basically, it was just a cooked meat shop and a bacon shop when we bought it. We introduced fresh meat, different lines of pies, a sandwich area, delicatessen - just to try and attract a lot of people and it has worked, it has worked for us! You have got to know your customer and you have got to know what they want and it usually works that way.
You can tell the time of the day sometimes by who turns up. You know what day of the week it is and what time it is by the customers that turn up, because people are creatures of habit, are customers, you know what they want, they very rarely stray from the path. So you know exactly what they are going to buy and it works because it gives you some idea what you need to buy then. I have served customers from the grandparents to the daughters and sons, down to the grandchildren and they have all shopped with us, you know, I have seen people that used to come to me that were children in prams and now they have got families and they shop with us, you know, so they pass on through generations!
We will have young families that come to us and they do not know what to make, so my experience is knowing what product they want and also showing them how to cook it so they come back to you then and you create some loyalty then. If you do the job right it still can work and there is a lot of potential still, a lot of potential! It is like a family because you have fall outs with them, then you will go out drinking with them, but you are trying to work it as like a big business, rather than just your own. People see it, if you are all getting on together the customer can sense it.
I have people that come and ask advice if they are new to the market, you know, ‘what do you think about this'. We will always help! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. There are always people here to help and it is a good life. You can have a lot of fun, it is hard work. Know your products and be confident in yourself. You have got to give it a go!
Nick, The Wine Glass (Halifax Borough Market)
Video transcript
Your business, your way – The Wine Glass, Halifax Borough Market case study - Video Transcript
I'm Nick, I have the Wine Glass here in Halifax Borough Market, we're an independent retailer of a unique range of wines and spirits really, we have a portfolio in stock that's a little bit different, so not your known sort of supermarket brands.
I've always thought if I ever do sort of work for myself coming out of a hospitality background, I'd love to do something in the Borough Market really! I was just a case of finding the right time really and then a kind of few years passed and I thought, there's never going to be the right time, so I just took the plunge and thought 'no this is what I want to do now'.
I wanted to work for myself and I wanted to do something to be known as local. The vast majority of our custom base is very very local to the town, which is kind of another reason why I wanted to do it really. The supermarket experience or the online experience can be quite sterile, we wanted to be a bit more personal and people can ask a question, people can browse, (if) they're not sure about something we offer that kind of direct sort of approach. You can just kind of come in and talk to a human being, which online doesn't really give you that option.
The relationship with the customers and the locals is probably the most sort of beneficial and rewarding sort of aspect of having a little shop to be honest. That connection, that relationship, it's the highlight of what we do really and it's kind of our USP really of what we're trying to be - a little bit different, because you can go into any shop and buy anything so you have to give customers a reason why they're going to come to you as opposed to everybody else.
From a trade-to-trade point of view, the butcher will come down with my meat order and I exchange that for wine, so there's very little cash to actually change hands. There's probably not a better time to do it than now, there's some great incentives and great opportunities within the market and you do get a lot of support in the early stages with your stall.
The best thing about it is the reward because the busier you are the reward is direct. The upside of being your own boss is you can control directly everything that you do - you've kind of got natural footfall from people that are in the market for other reasons - they're not necessarily coming to shop with you but because they're in here anyway, that gives you potentially new customers every day, so yeah I couldn't recommend it enough. To be honest, my only regret is I didn't do it a lot sooner!
Alex, Crust and Crumb ‘77 (Brighouse)
Video transcript
Crust and Crumb ‘77, Brighouse case study - Video Transcript
My name’s Alex, I’m the founder of Crust and Crumb ‘77, a limited company in Brighouse.
Three years ago I had a vision to take my passion to the markets, so I start to bake bread, sourdough bread, freshly every morning when the market was on.
I started everything in a basket, which was, if I remember, we had 12 bread. After that we just keep insisting a collaboration with Calderdale market team, that to get us in any market possible.
He was really supportive and soon as a market stall came available they ask us if we want to take over. We refurbished the market stall and we moved in.
From there, we just keep doing what we doing best, the bread products, and now we own a little shop in Brighouse.
Being a market trader it gives you opportunity to meet face to face. people, to listen, their life stories, they listen on a day by day basis what they are doing, to make friends, to sell product. Food is always going to bring people together.
I think being here in the shop, I miss those times, when we were on the market. it was raining, it was snowing, but people were still coming just for the chat.
The support that I have received from market management, they were always pushing me. They see a product, they see a person in us, as a company, and as myself, as Alex
I am grateful for whatever they did for me and I can only just sing their appraisal
it was a really really big help for me and motivation to see that people from the management from the Calderdale market management are there for me.