On 7th April 2003 Geraud Markets (UK) Ltd entered into an agreement with Liverpool City Council to establish the joint venture company Geraud Markets Liverpool Ltd (GMLL). This exciting and innovative strategic service partnership (SSP) was tasked with the responsibility of managing and developing the city council’s markets service.

Geraud Markets Liverpool Ltd is the largest and most successful example within the UK of a Public Private Sector Management Partnership of local authority markets. GMLL in partnership with Liverpool City Council now runs over 1,200 regular market days each year. In addition to this there are over 100 Speciality Event Market days, providing residents and tourists with access to excellent choice, value and quality.

Geraud Markets Liverpool Ltd’s partnership ethos and objectives are underpinned by a challenging and ambitious vision for the city council’s market service that is governed by the following mission statement and principal strategic objectives:-

GMLL Mission Statement
“To achieve the renaissance of the City’s Markets, restoring them to their former prominence in social, cultural and economic life through a wide range of shopping and trading opportunities, offering quality and choice to the local community and visitors to the city.”

Creation and Management of GMLL
The initial focus of the partnership was to ensure the successful service transfer from the city council to the newly established company ensuring service continuity and to address the ongoing financial difficulties that had characterised the existing service for many years.

As part of the business planning process the partnership developed its initial business plan with the principle aims to expand and improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the service delivery in the City of Liverpool’s markets.

An essential element of the business planning process was to agree a service improvement action plan that would assist the partnership in monitoring performance and achievements against each of the objectives.

The plan is used as a key management tool to assist GMLL in making the step change required to deliver the future vision for the markets service. The plan encompasses all aspects of the partnership’s management including: Finance, Human Resources, Service Delivery, Innovation, Sustainability, Investment, Communication and Performance.

The prime Aims & Objectives of the plan are detailed below: -