Wescott Factory Meats has been serving the community of Liverpool from its base in the city's historic Meat and Fish market for over 11 years - but not anymore.
Last weekend, the directors made a last-minute and heart-breaking decision. They decided they could not open for business and had to close the store at the iconic Prescot Road market for good.
"We made the decision to close at 2.45am on Sunday morning," explains Westcott director Carl Hayes. "I had been up worrying all night and texted my fellow director and just said 'we can't continue, we're going to have to close.'
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The decision was taken because of what the Westcott bosses say are sudden soaring charges, including an electricity bill that has risen from around £3,000 a month to more than £10,000 per month in a year.
Fortunately, Westcott has another site in the city at Smithdown Road. The desperate decision Carl and his fellow director made was done so that they could save the jobs associated with the Fairfield site and try and absorb them into the other premises.
"If we didn't have our Smithdown Road shop, we would have had to put 16 people out of work on Sunday, thankfully we were able to save those jobs through our other site but it's very tough. We need people to come and support us," he adds.
Westcott's departure from the Liverpool Meat and Fish Market may not be the last.
We spoke to a number of long-serving traders at the site who believe they could be just weeks or months away from going out of business.
Those still trading at the market asked not to be named, but all spoke of their deep angst at the current situation and their fears for their futures and criticised the market's current landlord, Manchester-based Selmar Properties, which has held the head lease on the site since 2010. Liverpool City Council owns the market and leases it to the company.
We contacted Selmar with the traders' claims and were issued an extensive response from their solicitors. We will provide the responses from the solicitors to the individual claims made by the traders throughout this piece.
The traders say they were left 'dumbfounded' earlier this year when their electricity bills increased by as much as 300%. They claim the sudden enormous increases were passed on by their landlord 'without warning, dialogue or time for businesses to make cost savings.'
They claim they have been locked into the current electricity deal and have no option of sourcing electricity elsewhere.
When it comes to the impact on Westcott Meats, Carl explains: "We've been here for over 11 years and now our electricity bill has gone up to more than £10,000 per month. We're also having to pay insurance premiums and estate management charges. We cannot continue to trade with these costs."
"We got no notice, it was just put on us straight away with backdated payments, it left us in a financial mess."
"There is no long-term future for us at these rates," explains another trader. "In the short term we are hand to mouth, just trying to survive. We either reduce our overheads, which could be staff, but if the status quo remains I don't think we will be here in 12 months, there will be nothing left.”
On the subject of the electricity charges, solicitors acting for Selmar Properties said their clients’ electricity supply contract for the premises expired in October 2022. They employed a specialist energy broker to advise in terms of obtaining a new contract at the best available market prices.
They added: “Unfortunately this was at the height of the energy price increases. Subsequently when the government removed the subsidy for such supplies in March 2023, the electricity costs for the market increased by a significant amount. However the price of electricity is outside our clients’ control, although they have willingly provided tenants with copies of invoices which they have received demonstrating the amounts which are being charged.”
The landlords’ solicitors added that ‘any increases in electricity charges have been caused by the increase of electricity charges received by the landlords and such charges are simply passed onto the tenants by the landlords in the usual way.”
They added that the landlord gave 'as much notice as they could' of the rising charges to tenants and included an explanation as to the costings and the increases. The landlords said they only learnt of the problem when the April invoice arrived from their energy supplier and indicated that the government subsidy for support had 'completely fallen away.'
Selmar says it is currently negotiating for a new contract for what it hopes will be a much reduced rate, with wholesale electricity prices vastly reduced since last October. The company says doing this will involve breaking a fixed deal and will come at 'considerable cost' to Selmar.
But it's not only the huge major electricity cost increases causing problems for the market traders. They claim a 10% administration charge which has been added to their costs by the landlord for the reading and production of electricity bills in recent years. and associated matters, is disproportionate now that bills have soared.
Carl said that Westcott's were previously paying just £1.25 per meter reading, with the new admin charge of 10% of their electricity usage rate added in early 2022. As the electricity costs ballooned, so did the admin fee.
“My electricity was around £3,000 a month this time last year, it’s now at £10,000.” one trader explains. “But £1,000 of that is an admin charge for reading a meter and printing a bill. We don’t have another £7,000 a month to spare - the writing is on the wall.”
On the administration fee, solicitors acting for Selmar said: “The landlords do charge an administration fee for reading meters, gathering the relevant information, preparing and rendering invoices in relation to the costs and dealing with any issues or disputes which arise in relation to such supplies. There is nothing wrong or unlawful in this.”
They added that there are 170 meters located all over the market building which have to be read, with many in obscure and hard to reach areas.. They said the landlord has been installing pre-payment meters within units over the past year in a bid to save administration charges for the tenants. The landlord said that while some of the smaller traders are happy with this, some of the larger traders are not.
The Liverpool Meat and Fish Market first opened in 1929 and has been a mainstay of the city and region’s economy ever since, providing fresh meat and fish to other businesses and the public through good times and bad.
“We’ve had tough times,” says one trader, who has operated from the site for 35 years, “This place stayed open through the war, through BSE and Foot and Mouth, we were open through Covid and had queues coming out of the doors when everything else shut down.
“This is an important and historic site for the people of Liverpool, we serve lots of different cultures and communities.
“There is a lot of history in this market,” he adds. "We've seen the market change over the years. One time it was butchers and fish shops, there's not so many of them now so we diversified as the trade did. It's now restaurants, pubs, hotels, cafes and takeaways. The Chinese community use us for their restaurants and personal groceries. We also have a lot of African and Middle Eastern customers, it's become a hub for lots of communities."
I've been here 43 years,” says another trader. “I've got 8 family members working for me, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews. I don’t know what to tell them.
"If the electricity isn't addressed within the next month I think you could see 90% of these people walking out. I certainly can't afford to pay £10-12,000 a month.”
The financial pressures and uncertain futures faced by these proud Liverpool traders are having a big impact on their own mental health.
"It's devastating to come in and think what will we be hit with next,” says one trader who has been working from the market for 40 years.
“It’s totally deflating and devastating coming into work at 5am wondering what we will be hit with next. My mental health has suffered and I am at breaking point. We feel as tenants we are being driven out. It is desperate.”
The traders are also unhappy with the state of the market site. They claim that while they pay estate management charges, they do not believe they are getting value for money with pallets and weeds littering the car park in which some vehicles appear to have been left for a long time. The traders say they have raised these issues as well as the others mentioned with the landlord numerous times.
Responding to these claims, the solicitors for Selmar Properties said the company remains keen to make improvements to the site and ‘have been doing so for several years.’
For these market traders at this famous Liverpool market site, the future feels very uncertain and they are running out of options. With one unit vacated, the traders we spoke to feel it could only be a matter of time until more follow.
“We want to know what the future holds for our businesses,” says one trader, “We can't go on like this."
The solicitors acting on behalf of Selmar Properties added: “In terms of the comment that traders are concerned of losing their livelihoods and the landlords not listening to their concerns, we are assured by the landlords that the tenants’ concerns are definitely being listened to, but obviously the landlords are not responsible for the massive cost increases, not only in relation to the utility services but also for the cost of labour and materials, services and in particular in terms of having to adhere very strictly to controlled food standard regulations which govern such a market.
“Our clients are satisfied that they are acting in a totally proper and legal manner in running the market and reject that they are responsible for any problems which the tenants may be experiencing, and in particular in terms of increased costs."
“Our clients are a reputable commercial property company and consider that they have a good reputation in terms of how they run properties and business.”
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