Melbourne Market Relocation

The paper analyses the case of relocation of Melbourne Markets, formally known as Melbourne Wholesale Fruit and Vegetables Market, to Epping. It discusses the leadership players, required leadership attributes, stakeholders' perspectives, leadership's perspectives, leadership lessons, and assessment of concepts and theories. The paper highlights the absence of proper management of the change, lack of urgency, and the formation of a realistic goal.

Running head: MELBOURNE MARKET RELOCATION
Melbourne Market Relocation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
The relocation of a business operations or an organization is generally influenced by
the scope of profitable business in the new destination. The choice of the new destination is
affected by significant amount of facilities like easy transport, profitable market and the
comfort in the operations. Along with these advantageous points, the concern in the
relocation is the possibility of losing a developed market along brand awareness that the
company or the business operations have in the existing market. The paper analyses one such
case of relocation of Melbourne Markets which is formally known as Melbourne Wholesale
Fruit and Vegetables Market.
Overview:
The Melbourne Market was one of the prime sources for the growers and the
wholesalers of the country to sell their fresh products and as result the market was considered
a significantly influential factor in the economy of Australia. The market was generally
situated in Footscray Road, West Melburne which was near to the Melbourne Fish Market
and Port of Melbourne. In the year 2000, the government started considering the plan of
relocation to Epping in order to avail a world class facility which in the year 2005 was
announced. But the implementation of the plans took 10 years. The plan considered a new
site of 70 hectare with 120000 square meters of warehousing along with 3000 business
processes and an employment of 8500 workers. The new market place was planned to trade
products worth 2 billion US dollars with the motive to offer the fresh fruits, flowers and
vegetables to the people of Victoria and Australia.
Leadership Players for the Project:
The project had the sincere leadership of two of the renowned organizations of
Australia which are the Government of Victoria and the Melbourne Market Authority. In the

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year 2000 the government considered the plan of relocation and the approval of the plan was
also done by the government. The implementation of the plan and the settlement of the issues
related to the growers, wholesalers and the other stakeholders in the process of relocation was
managed by the Melbourne Markets Authority or MMA.
Required Leadership Attributes:
The government was significantly ignorant to one of the major step of the 8 suitable
steps in leading a change. The step was creating a sense of urgency. The Government of
Victoria considered this plan of relocation in the year 2000 and it took five years for them to
approve the plan of relocation. After that, the government took another ten years in the
implementation of the plan which was crossing the scheduled date of implementation by
considerable amount of time. The Government in this case along with the Melbourne Markets
Authority were not able to get the sense of urgency and that was one of the major detrimental
factors as that led Fresh State to think about the alternatives in the form of a privately funded
market in the south eastern suburb of Dandenong1. The absence of effort in recognising the
sense of urgency damaged both sets of people and that is significantly visible with the rapid
growth in the estimation of the budget for the implementation of the plan. Along with this,
even the wholesalers’ organization with the growers were significantly concerned with the
rates of rents in the new destination that is yet to be disclosed by the government. Apart from
this one of the influential factor in leading a change is the correct formation of the goals and
the drive towards the exact completion of the objectives. The managerial organizations for
the plan significantly failed in this aspect as well as it is observed that the wholesalers or the
growers were going to have almost half of the space that they used to get in the Footscary
Road. The general aim behind the relocation was the increment of the space and the
1 Parker, David, et al. "Integration of project-based management and change management: Intervention
methodology." International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management 62.5 (2013): 534-544.

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experience of the world class facilities but the managerial decision makers of the case even
were unable to reach the aim effectively so that the process of implementation seems
realistic.
Stakeholders’ Perspectives on the Success:
The possibility of 8500 employment in the new market was instrumental in solving
the concern of Australia regarding the employment of their people specifically the youths.
The proposed market was significant in establishment of 3000 business processes under one
single roof with a specified motive of serving the people of Victoria with the fresh
vegetables, fruits and flowers. Apart from this the growers of the entire Australia was getting
a perfect place to sell their products and the processing of their products was also subjected to
have an improved classy facility. The analysis of the trading specifies that the successful
implementation of the plan of having the relocation will guarantee 2 billion US dollars
production. The environment friendly approach of conducting business in the new market by
the recycling of the refuses of 500 tons annually along with the rain water harvesting and the
solar systems as the source of energy was significantly helpful to the society.
Leadership’s Perspectives on the Stakeholders:
The project’s leadership was significantly affecting the business of the wholesalers
and the growers and that was significantly visible with the expression of Bundaberg and
Bowen growers like Ben Pichard or Loretta Soden regarding the non-payment from the
wholesalers and when the wholesalers were brought to the court, even Young Sang
spokeswoman Frances Pulambo accepted the fact of underpayment owing to the mess related
with the relocation. Somehow the belief of the growers and the wholesalers in terms of
conducting effective business in the new place were not strong enough to ignore the stable

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and tested market of Footscary Road. The effective presence of the leadership in this case
was missing and that created a significant chaos in the market.
Leadership Lessons:
The change management is a significantly difficult task in the organizations for the
management and in that case leading the change must align in accordance with the suitable of
theories of change management. In the mentioned case the creation of the sense of urgency
was much needed from the part of the leaders but even the government of Victoria wasted
significant amount of time in the evaluation and implementation of the change which
eventually increased the amount of estimated cost for the implementation from 300 US
dollars to 670 US dollars. Along with this, the leaders were not able to effectively meet their
objectives which was visible with the change in the space to be allocated to the wholesalers.
Lena Gregory, a potato and pumpkin seller across ten stands had to reduce the space to only
four stands in Epping which forced Lena to take the warehouse. The warehouse expenditure
along with the salary of the staffs required to supervise the warehousing of her products were
significant in putting additional pressure on the wholesalers. This two segments of the change
management could have been managed in a much more effective way.
Assessment of the Concepts and Theories:
The relocation of the Melbourne Market included significant changes in the business
management. The changes from the conventional market with less facilities to a market that
is designed with all improved facilities like easy transportation inside the market, large
warehouse and the flexibility of storing considerable amount of goods, needed significant
leadership skills to adopt. The leadership was observed to portray an absence of proper

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management of the change which was pretty clear with lack of urgency and the formation of
a realistic goal.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note it can be said the issues that emerged from the relocation, were
crucial enough to extract more importance from the leaders or the managerial decision
makers of the relocation and that could have seen an effective implementation of the
relocation process where the plan of relocation would not have seemed as a “white elephant”.

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References:
Parker, David, et al. "Integration of project-based management and change management:
Intervention methodology." International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management 62.5 (2013): 534-544.

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Overview (2018) Melbourne Wholesale Fruit Vegetable & Flower Market
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