Queen Victoria Markets

From the Queen Victoria Market Website:

http://www.qvm.com.au/corporate.aspx

The Company

Queen Victoria Market Pty Ltd (“the Company”), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Melbourne City Council (“the Council”) has operated since July 1997 to manage and develop the Queen Victoria Market (“the Market”).

The Queen Victoria Market occupies 7 hectares within the Melbourne Central Business District and has been operated by the Council or the Company for 130 years.

There are 140 leasehold premises and over 600 periodical licence stallholders. It is a well-known historic and cultural icon for the City of Melbourne and is the largest and most original of all the retail markets in the metropolitan area. It has national and international significance as an historic open market.

The Market is very much a fresh food market based on fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, chicken and delicatessen lines. General lines include clothing, footwear and accessories. Giftware and souvenirs have become an important part of the Market with particular appeal to interstate and overseas tourists as well as segments of the local market. Take away food and coffee have had significant growth over the last few years.

The Market first opened on Sundays in 1979, initially trading in general merchandise which considerably strengthened revenue and its consumer appeal for general lines. Fresh food trading on Sundays commenced in 1994. Since then the Sunday trade in the food area has developed well.

The general trading area has experienced substantially increased competition as a result of more options for shoppers, especially on Sundays.

The Sunday Market has also become a major shopping and tourist destination in its own right. Food trading on Sundays has grown substantially. Queen St, on Sundays, with plants, coffee, pancakes and other offerings, is now a strong, colourful trading area sought by traders. The theme of Sunday being a “family” day is supplemented by live entertainment with bands, fashion parades and other activities in Queen Street.

There have been many changes during the Market's operation over the years. A strategy has been implemented to make the facilities of the Market more available outside normal Market operating times, especially in the evenings. This strategy, of encouraging additional uses, has been very successful. There are now regular annual events such as Opera in the Market, which attract large audiences each year plus a major seasonal event, the Suzuki Night Market.

The Company launched the first Night Market 11 years ago. This event is aimed at bringing local residents and tourists into the Market on Wednesday nights over summer months. This has been an excellent success with over 300,000 people visiting the Suzuki Night Market during the last season. Market research each year shows excellent feedback on the acceptance of the event from both patrons and traders.

The Company has also introduced new features to the traditional day Market. Market tours, introduced in the early 1990s continue to be popular and this year the Market expects to have over 4,500 tour patrons. A Wine Market, to complement the food offering now operates in I Shed along with Organic Fruit and Vegetables. This was initially launched on Sundays only to provide an outlet for small wineries around Victoria to sell their wines in addition to their cellar door sales. The Wine Market was slow to start but feedback from participating wineries indicates good steady growth and acceptance by patrons and is now trading three days per week (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays).

The Organics offering at the Market has grown with the inclusion of an Organic dry goods trader, an Organic butcher operating in the Meat Hall and an Organic café in Therry St. This strengthens the Market’s position as the place to shop for Organic food with a full complement of Organic goods available. The demand for Organic food is forecast to have continued growth and the strong core of Organic food retailers at the Market is an excellent drawcard for the Market overall.

This year the Market expects to have approximately 10 million or more shoppers visit the site. This is an overall is an excellent indication that the Market is still relevant and an important Melbourne institution. The challenge is to maintain the Market’s relevance with constantly changing customer demand, expectations, and competition but also preserve the heritage aspects of the site. Patrons for the Market mostly come from local suburbs but also are drawn from outer suburbs, even Victorian towns and cities, eg Geelong, Ballarat, especially on weekends. Another important group of patrons are tourists, from regional Victoria, interstate and international. Tourists are important, especially for the non food area of the Market.

Retailing in Melbourne continues to be highly competitive with an estimated increase of 30% in retail space over the last 5 years. Competition for traders in the Market includes a constantly increasing number of outlet stores, extended trading hours, increasingly high standards of merchandising and good customer service. There have been major new centres opened, eg QV, GPO, Federation Square, Melbourne Central, and now, the Southern Cross Station in Spencer Street. These trends mean it is vitally important to constantly position shopping at the Market as a rich experience; a lot more than simple shopping. The traditional market theme of low price is simply not sufficient to maintain and grow Market patronage in today’s competitive environment. There has to be a proactive and continual reinforcement of the Market as being a satisfying and fulfilling place to visit for essentials, interesting or exotic goods.

The Market attracts a diverse range of customers from buyers of fresh foods to international and domestic travellers shopping for a range of products and seeking a quintessential “Melbourne experience”. The Marketing Strategy seeks to position the Market as a place for shoppers to consistently find; Quality, a broad range of products, uniqueness of product range, highly competitive prices, and a great shopping experience overall which is different from normal retail centres.