Huddersfield 2015

Market Stall To Shop

TestTown Huddersfield was hosted by Kirklees Council in partnership with the Peter Jones Academy at Kirklees College and the enterprise team at Huddersfield University. Designed as ‘Welcome to Huddersfield’ weekend in October, this event was used to promote and support their youth market ‘The Alternative Market’ which they have been developing since 2014. This is part of the successful national ‘The Teenage Market’ initiative, ( theteenagemarket.co.uk ). Using the Teenage Market’s licensing package, ‘The Alternative Market’ scheme provides free and subsidised trading opportunities to young entrepreneurs aged 13-29 and is fully funded by Kirklees Council.

“Kirklees Council used the TestTown model to offer the ‘Alternative Market’ stallholders the opportunity to trade out of council owned vacant shops for the weekend.”

Kirklees Council used the TestTown model to offer the ‘Alternative Market’ stallholders the opportunity to trade out of council owned vacant shops for the weekend, giving them the opportunity to see if a permanent reatil unit would suit their businesses. 22 businesses took part in the ‘Welcome to Huddersfield’ weekend trading out of a variety of vacant shops and market stalls. The TestTown 2015/16 winner, Stephen Bond developed his business ‘Panda’s Kitchen’ through this and is now based in a retail unit in Byram Arcade.

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Words of Advice

  • It was an amazing location, yet because of the distance between finalists, we felt a little neglected because we so far out of the way. Try and have all finalists a fairly equal distance apart  

    TestTown 2014 Participant

  • Have plenty of time to be on hand during trading as working with lots of stakeholders and businesses is very time consuming. It is key to manage the expectations of the participants e.g. they will not all make lots of money during their first day of trade.

    TestTown 2015 Host

  • It would be great if towns had a means of showcasing local talent all year round to show local shoppers and public what there is up and coming in terms of potential business.

    TestTown 2015 Participant

Highlights from the recent years

Five Ways To Supercharge Your TestTown

We believe there are five things which would Supercharge your TestTown:

  1. Every town should create a clear, supported pathway into trading and opening up a shop  for new town centre entrepreneurs.
  2. Every town should have a permanent pop-up facility in a viable trading space which offers flexible lease arrangements up to a year for new town centre entrepreneurs to learn.
  3. Every town should work, within their means, to reduce financial barriers in reduced rates and rents for new traders during their first year of business.
  4. Every town should carry out a regular (every five years) entrepreneur-led consultation which would feed into a business-led strategy for town centre development and business support.
  5. Every town should develop a hyperlocal cross-sector partnership to lead local innovation, ensuring that agencies, businesses, and residents are all powerful in leading local development.