Posts in category: News

A NEW multi-media campaign to encourage more people to shop at Swansea’s award-winning indoor market has been launched.

Its wide range of family-run independent stalls selling everything from cockles and laverbread to freshly cooked Thai food already attracts more than four million visitors a year.

The bi-lingual campaign is emphasising the tradition, heritage and appeal of the market and includes both radio and digital media advertising.

In addition to the radio advertisements, a short video called ‘Market Morning’ shows the market coming to life each day with the sights, sounds and smells of the market hall and the pride of the traders as they serve their customers.

Another theme stresses the heritage of the market and details its history. The traders are portrayed as the lifeblood of the market who continue to work hard every day to keep the tradition alive in Swansea.

Cllr Robert Francis Davies, Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Major Projects, said: “A huge amount of work goes into promoting Swansea Market to ensure that residents and visitors support this first class retail destination.

“We are about to embark on an ambitious £1bn transformation of the city centre with new retail, leisure and business opportunities, but the market will always remain a star attraction.

“The stalls and the traders make it a unique part of the city, so we will continue to ensure this is the case.”

Swansea Market can be traced back almost 1,000 years when local people gathered in the shadow of Swansea Castle to sell their wares and trade crops and livestock.

In 1652 a market house with a roof was built in Castle Square but by the time Swansea was targeted by German bombs during the Second World War it had moved to Oxford Street.

Some £1.25m was raised for a new building and the current Swansea Market opened for business in 1961.

It has continued to thrive and in 2015 it was named ‘Britain’s Best Large Indoor Market’ by the National Association of British Market Authorities.

If you have not already seen the promotional video, you can see it on the market’s website at www.swanseaindoormarket.co.uk

Details of the 2018 Diploma in Market Administration course are now available here. 

The Diploma provides an excellent introduction to many aspects of markets administration and is recognised as the premier markets qualification for local authority and private market operators – and those from allied organisations.

Each year NABMA facilitate a specialist training programme with high quality lecturers and enable candidates to obtain a professional qualification – the Diploma in Market Administration.

Candidates come together to attend 3 two-day courses in Derby on specialist subjects and complete three assignments to demonstrate what they have learnt from the experience.

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As you will see we now have a new Frequently Asked Questions page –  accessible via the NABMA homepage. The page gives you easy access to over 60 FAQs on a range of market subjects – Open Markets, Policy/Legal matters, Market Halls, Street Trading and Trader Queries on Market Hall stalls.

We wish to cover other market issues so that we can extend the FAQ service. If you would like to comment or to contribute a FAQ – or if you wish to propose an issue that could be addressed within a FAQ, please contact Chris New, Member Services Consultant on 0789 0843 112 or chrisnew_nms@hotmail.com

NABMA would like to particularly thank Steve Hadfield (Tameside), Andy Ward (Warrington), Graham Wilson (Legal Consultant), Peter Turvey (London Consultant) and Colin Wolstenholme (Bradford) – all of whom have contributed their time and experience to support this new NABMA service.
 

Ready, Steady, Cook and Strictly star Ainsley Harriott has praised a unique, new curry recipe developed in a Bolton Indian restaurant as ‘better than a Balti’ after sampling it at Bolton Food and Drink Festival on Sunday 27 August.

The new dish, dubbed ‘the Bolti’ in honour of its Bolton origins, has been unveiled exactly 40 years since the creation of one of the UK’s favourite curry dishes – the Balti – in Birmingham.

The Bolti was developed by one of Greater Manchester’s best curry restaurants. The unique dish is based on a traditional Balti recipe, but has been enhanced with achari pickle, along with Lancashire Sauce made by family firm Entwistle’s of Ramsbottom.

Ainsley, who has been one of the nation’s favourite TV chefs for almost two decades, sampled the dish when it was premiered after his first-ever cookery demonstration at the festival, which runs from Friday 25 – Monday 28 August.

Ainsley said: “The Bolti is delicious. I absolutely loved it. It has a tangy, spicy flavour and is very aromatic, and really moves on and develops the original Balti recipe. The Lancashire Sauce and achari pickle add a whole new dimension.

“This new curry is unique to Bolton – you can’t get it anywhere else. I think the Bolti recipe will be a huge success and it is a worthy rival to the traditional Balti.”

The Bolti was developed by the Royal Balti House in Farnworth, which scores five out of five on Trip Advisor and has won a series of awards.

Manager Keith Meah and chef Anwar Hossein developed the dish in response to demand from regular customers who had tried everything on the menu and wanted something bigger and bolder. The Bolti has proved such a hit with locals that it is now set to be added to The Royal Balti’s regular menu.

Mr Meah said: “We’re thrilled that Ainsley loved our Bolti! It is wonderful that a top chef like Ainsley has given it his support.

“We’re great fans of the Balti – we specialise in them, and that’s reflected in our name! We have many regulars who want to try something that’s not on the menu and so we create new dishes for them. They love this new recipe.

“To mark the 40^th anniversary of the invention of the Balti in Birmingham, the fact that we’re based in Bolton and it’s the food and drink festival, we named it the Bolti. We hope that it will be as popular as the original Balti one day.”

Bolton Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Cllr John Byrne, said: “It’s fantastic that Bolton is home to a unique, new curry recipe which could rival the famous Balti. I love this unique Bolton version and it’s great that Ainsley does too.”

NABMA are pleased to be supporting British Food Fortnight which takes place this year from 23rd September – 8th October.

British Food Fortnight is run by Love British Food and is the biggest annual, national celebration of British food and drink. It was established in 2002 in response to the Foot and Mouth crisis. We’ll be supporting British Food Fortnight via social media and would love to hear what you are doing during the fortnight. Drop Beth a line at marketing@nabma.com to tell us how you’ll be celebrating and we’ll promote what you are doing. For some inspiration, case studies and promotional materials check out the Love British Food website at: http://www.lovebritishfood.co.uk/

There are just 3 weeks left to enter the Blachere Market awards. Plenty of nominations have already been submitted for Market Manager and Market Team but we are currently short of nominations for Market Innovation and Market Young Person.

We all know that Markets across the country are testing new ideas. Some affect the operation of the Market, some affect the promotion of the Market particularly via social media and some benefit market consumers. Please share your innovation with us and be recognised nationally for your work.

We need young people to secure the future of the industry. If there is a young person working on your market who has, for example, taken the Diploma in Market Administration and is making an important contribution to your market tell us about that person so we recognise their efforts. For more details about the awards click here

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