Today’s Financial Times gives further credibility to the Retail Survey with an article under the headline “Lay out your stall if you want to be top banana”. It also features Dunelm Mills, referring to a decision “to float with a value of £350-£400m” and its birthplace on Leicester Market. The Chief Executive of Dunelm Mills states that “a market trader has to make the same decisions as any retailer and the same respect for the customer” While he acknowledges, based on the retail Survey, that street markets offer dwindling opportunities for entrepreneurs the fact that the Retail Survey states that turnover on markets is in excess of £1m each year means that opportunities still exist. Reference is made to the success of Borough Market which represents an excellent example of a retail makeover attracting city professionals.

Graham Wilson.