A 40-year journey comes to an end this week for Steve Pegrum, aka stalwart customer of this Market, Stevie Wells. We talked to him about his time as a buyer here and how the market has helped to shape his business

There are people who pass through a market and there are others who become part of its fabric — woven into its routine, its humour, its unwritten rules and its memories. For more than four decades, Stevie Wells has unquestionably been one of the latter: a buyer, friend and character, a storyteller and a man who has conducted his business in his way; the right way.

A reasonably conservative calculation suggests that Steve has spent around 11 years of his life either in the cab traveling to and from New Covent Garden Market, or walking and buying on Buyers’ Walk.  So, as he prepares to step back from the nightly duties at New Covent Garden Market, his NCGM story is one of long-standing relationships and a profound love for the trade and the people that have not only underpinned his livelihood, but enabled him to do the same for his entire family. It is a story about what market life can give to the people who devote themselves to them, and in Steve’s case, about the immense contribution he has given back.

Humble beginnings

Steve’s story starts in Islington, where he was born above a hairdresser across from the clock tower. “Dad was a milkman, mum was a school cleaner. They were pretty humble beginnings,” Steve says. “Dad didn’t give anything away. We struggled for everything we got.”

By the time the family moved to Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, the seeds of Steve’s future were already sown. In his early teens he had a paper round to supplement helping dad on his milk round. One night, waiting yet again for newspapers that arrived late, he decided to go all in, walked to the greengrocer on the high street and asked for work. “He asked me when I wanted to start. I said Monday. And that was that. I loved it,” Steve remembers. And so, a schooling dipping cabbages, sweeping fridges, learning about the produce, stacking boxes and serving customers began, instilling a work ethic that never left him.

His future wasn’t set in stone. His dad pushed him to “get a trade”, so Steve trained as a precision engineer. For a while it stuck, but fruit and veg had already entered his bloodstream.

Although he didn’t know it at the time, the owner of the greengrocer was also his future father-in-law and having met Maureen, the world of fresh produce inevitably drew him back in, first in Essex and then after a life-changing move, in Norfolk. They sold their home and their brand new XR3. And they replaced them with a £100 Vauxhall Viva that had just failed its MOT and a neglected house that had been empty for over two years.

The young couple took on two stalls of their own and worked alongside Maureen’s dad’s business, before merging their stalls into the larger business and becoming responsible for three shops – one in Norwich and two in Dereham.

Maureen’s father diversified, with a nightclub in Norwich, and left Steve and his two sons to manage the fruit and veg side of the operation. “Unfortunately he took his eye off the accounts,” says Steve, “and when the nightclub failed, he ended up bankrupt. The shops were sold to cover some of the debts, but they were still significant.

“Maureen and I were given the choice of sinking or swimming and we took over the business with her two brothers.”

There, the young couple took on her father’s retail market business that was by then in dire straits financially and made the sort of all-or-nothing decision that defines many market families.

They committed their future to raising CC Wells from the ashes, embarking on a mission to reinvent and reinvigorate the stalls - and pay off every penny of debt that came with them.

When Steve recalls those early years, he’s realistic. “We did three years solid. Sunday markets too, so seven days a week. No holidays. My mum would come up to take the kids out because we were always working.”

The debt his father-in-law left them was enormous for the time: £225,000. A small fortune even today, but in the 1980s, an astronomical sum of money to pay back while establishing new foundations. “At times I thought we were mad taking it on. But we paid every penny back,” Steve says, adding that the desire to be free of debt became a theme that runs through his entire working life.

Consistent approach

At their peak, Steve, Maureen and her two brothers ran 14 stalls – and the standouts were in Sheringham, where at their busiest  they had a vast 40-foot set-up with up to 12 staff serving, pallets stacked around Maureen who worked strapped in to a money belt, selling punnet after punnet to people heading to the beach.

“It was busy, busy, busy,” Steve smiles. “Our son Darren – who now runs the business - started there when he was eight or nine, shooting potatoes up, clearing rubbish, doing whatever needed doing.”

At one point they were taking two 7.5-tonne lorries into Sheringham every Saturday, plus an artic or two mid-week from their London market suppliers.

And all of this while still trying to pay back that mountain of inherited debt.

“My mum told me to look after the pennies and let the pounds look after themselves and my dad said don’t buy anything you can’t afford,” he says. “It sounds obvious, but those are the foundations of how we’ve run the business and too many people either can’t or won’t follow those principles.

“I came back off holiday once and took £35,000 in cash into New Covent Garden on a Monday morning to pay my bills. You wouldn’t do that now, but that was the world we were in then.”

Steve adds that sticking to their guns has been crucial to their ongoing viability. “We’ve always run the business the way we want to run it. We’re not a big company, so we don’t bend to the wishes of every customer. If you fit into our route, then that’s great, but we’ve never gone chasing business. If someone comes to us and it makes sense for us, of course we’ve taken it on.

“The situation we took on made us who we are. It gave us resilience, hammered home the importance of cash management, customer service, tightly controlled logistics, quality control - everything that has underpinned our business and our relationships ever since.”

The market bubble

Relationships, of course, have been a equally important part of Steve’s success. The heart of New Covent Garden Market is its people, he says, adding: “The market is a bubble, a world of its own.”

As a traditional buyer who shops the entire Market to optimise his nightly chances of a ‘nice little earner’, Steve has known pretty much everyone and anyone who has worked in Nine Elms during his time. He talks emotionally about great friendships on Buyers’ Walk and beyond, with the likes of (in no particular order) Geoff Lamb, Paul Emmett, Michael Walker, Ian Taylor, Gary Marshall, Jason Tanner and Roger Garber.

He can reel off several holidays – in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean –where he has bumped into wholesalers from the market; hearing ‘Stevie Wells’ called out in far flung places has become a regular feature of his time away from work. He has holidayed with several NCGM wholesalers and had his bill picked up in restaurants around the world by several more.

Steve has had his fallings out over the years – who hasn’t?! - but some of his most enduring relationships have emerged from those misunderstandings.

And as he has got older, the younger generation have learned who Stevie Wells is and what he stands for, with many insisting on calling him “Mr Wells”.

“I don’t want that,” he says, “but I appreciate it. It’s respect.”

What Steve values most are the favours done discretely - the trust, the arguments avoided, the help given without conditions or expectation. “I’ve been lucky,” he says. “And had quite a few strokes of luck. I think I’ve earned them though. I’ve always tried to be straight. Maybe that’s unusual, but it’s how I’ve always worked.”

The art of buying

The art of buying has changed in the last 40 years, and not all for the better, says Steve. But the culture of buying, the back-and-forth, the integrity, the judgement of what will suit your customer and also turn you a nice margin, is alive and well.

Steve embodies the craft seen throughout the market. He tells stories of clearing 36 cases of damaged cherry vine tomatoes for £4 a box because he knew how to turn them into value by re-punneting and carefully repacking them; being thanked for pulling a salesman’s pants down, as it was a good lesson for them; of buying boards and boards of clems on spotting an opportunity no-one else seemed to see; of arguments with salesmen who skimmed a layer or two off the agreed number of boxes they’d sold, assuming he wouldn’t notice; of seasons where Cape fruit was so good you didn’t need to open a box; and of the subsequent diminishing quality of South African fruit, improvement of imports from other countries and the struggle British growers have to be competitive.

Many buyers who frequent Buyers Walk are content to stick to buying. But, with efficiency always front of mind, Steve spotted an opening years back and built a very successful back-haulage operation that ensures his vehicles are full on their way both to and from the market. Although he says the deliveries he makes are not particularly lucrative, the service has been hugely important for local growers wanting to deliver from the region into London, and long-term logistics relationships with some of the largest brands on the floor at NCGM could never do any harm to relationships with traders in Nine Elms.

As with the rest of his business, Steve has put the hours in to make it work, with strict and unwavering principles attached. “Turn up on time. Be straight. Don’t rob the senders. Do the job right,” he says of what has become way more than a side hustle and a great vehicle for door opening and brand visibility for CC Wells.

The accidental explosion

Most businesses that have been evolving over 40 years will have plenty of sliding doors moments, but one relatively recent twist-of-fate has had a huge impact on the CC Wells journey, leading to the creation of the retail business at its Dereham warehouse that has quickly become one of the strongest parts of the firm.

It began with the realisation that the market stalls were no longer able to front up the business. Steve found some additional work with Premier Fruits, which enabled him to keep busy, but his brother in law was not happy with the change of direction and chose this time to go his own way and leave CC Wells, taking four of the stalls with him. Then came a chat between social media phobe Steve and son Darren.

“I asked Darren whether we could tell people on Facebook they could buy from the warehouse — because we were no longer on the Friday market. He put a post out. The response was like a bomb going off!”

They weren’t ready. With two sets of small scales, nowhere near enough fridge space and no real customer service system in place, it was a rude awakening when customers poured through the doors. Nothing if not resilient, the family and the rest of the team did what they have always done – they rolled their sleeves up and dug in for dear life – and once again came up smelling of roses. In an age when supermarkets undeniably dominate, Wells had re-created something more human: small-quantity, personalised fresh food shopping. And a second bomb was about to go off.

“During COVID, demand went through the roof. We doubled the fridge space, created systems and established routines that still stand us in good stead now,” Steve explains. “The warehouse was filled every day with fresh produce sourced from NCGM the night before and often topped up during the afternoon. It was crazy for a while, but we adapted and made it work.”

Something for everyone

One of the reasons the Wells business has thrived is its multi-tiered offer, at the extremes of which are a range of high-end premium produce, and a counter offer of good-quality, affordable bagged or punneted. The middle ground is a consistently broad range of produce that offers something to everyone. “People come from miles around,” says Steve. “We’ve got customers who want the best grapes anyone can grow and we’ve got people who want a bag of pears for a pound. And both groups deserve good food.”

It’s not just clever retailing; it’s a philosophy of inclusivity that stems from years on the market stalls and a belief that no-one should be priced out of buying fresh and nutritious food.

The warehouse has become a community fixture, a friendly place to go for older members of the local population and a place where many of the residents on the adjoining estate pop in for a daily shop and a natter.

Every Wednesday, CC Wells sets up at a local care home, and it does the same for others. “It doesn’t matter if the care home residents want two leeks and two bananas. Or four carrots. Or two apples. It’s all fine. It gives them independence,” says Steve. “Stuart loves doing it – it’s our community too.”

Family ties

No part of this story is complete without Maureen, the children and their entire family.

Every member of the clan has worked at some time in the business and every other team member becomes a de facto member of the Wells family. Darren, who has been working hard since those days in Sheringham, has quietly been taking on more of the operation in recent times, determined to scale up the business further as his father steps back. His uncle stepped back from the business last Christmas due to ill health and his aunt left at the same time.

Steve will still do invoices, still watch the paperwork, still check the buying. “It’ll keep my brain ticking,” he says. “And I’ll do holiday relief. But not like before. The next chapter is in Darren’s hands.”

Why now?

Steve has lost his father and mother recently, watched relatives age painfully, and seen close friends struggle with ill health. As comes to us all eventually, he has begun to feel the weight of time, and recognised the value of using what remains – hopefully many more years, of course. “I don’t want to be doing the hours anymore,” he admits. “There’s only so many years for us on the planet. Me and Maureen want to spend them together. I’m going to miss it and I’m not going away completely, just changing the routine of my life.”

The market he leaves behind

Steve’s retirement coincides with the completion of the new Buyers’ Walk, a modern environment replacing the gritty charm of the old market buildings. “I liked it how it was,” he says. “I think it’s the right time for me as the market is changing and I’ve been around long enough to value the past and not really see the potential of these changes. I love the market and the people here, and it has been a very important part of my life, but it’s not what it used to be for me.”

He does recognise the inevitability of change though. “What makes the market tick isn’t so much the buildings, the facilities or the product, it’s the people and the relationships inside it,” Steve says. “As long as that survives, so will the market.

“I’m quite an emotional man and visiting the market for the last time on Christmas Eve is going to be very difficult. I will probably be back to cover people’s holidays now and then, but it’s the end of an era and a big change in my life.

“I will miss it and I think lots of people will miss me too. I’ve been a good customer for a long, long time - the CC Wells business will go on and our new buyer Gary will do an excellent job as its face in the market, but there will not be another Stevie Wells!”

Legacy

When Steve walks out of the market for the last time as a regular part of the furniture, the significance will be obvious to everyone who knows him. We’ve seen it many times before, of course, but a generation of knowledge leaves with him and another slice of experience and old-school instinct and methodology exits Buyers’ Walk.

It is inevitably a very sad day for a lot of people, but Steve sums it up with typical understatement. “We didn’t come from anything special. When Maureen and I took the business on, we almost had less than nothing. But we’ve had a good life out of this. And we’ve enjoyed it.”

Every few years, outsiders predict the death of London’s wholesale markets. Supermarkets will kill them, logistics will replace them, imports will bypass them, etc, etc… Yet New Covent Garden Market remains a £1bn powerhouse, feeding London and the South East daily.

Why?

Because of buyers like Steve Wells. The hard-working, loyal people who show up night after night, who support growers, suppliers, salesmen and their customers. People like Steve who honour debts, teach their descendants to graft like them, and trade with skill and integrity. These are the people who become part of the market’s soul.

As Steve and Maureen step into their next chapter, the New Covent Garden Market community tips its hat to a man who gave it everything and in doing so, became a big part of its history.