ABOUT

Old Market House meets New Market Café.

Old Market House in Birkenhead is steeped in history and currently hosts a number of NHS departments.

On the top floor, with a stunning view over Liverpool’s docklands, was a spacious canteen, which was ran as a social enterprise. The challenge was to turn this quintessential staff canteen with an atmosphere as bland as the food into a commercial café, that gave the tenants something to rave about at meal times.

Birkenhead market is the beating heart of commerce in the town. The hustle and bustle, the labyrinth of stalls, the fresh produce and convenience at every turn is what makes this market a desirable destination for the locals and visitors alike.

What better way to re-invigorate Old Market House with a new market vibe, bringing the freshness indoors? Mixing this with the current assets of the café, I focussed in on making breakfast, lunch and coffee breaks something that NHS staff could really look forward to.

Concept Development.

Using the classic market stall canopy stripes, I created a very strong brand that was impossible to miss or ignore. When you’re competing with a plethora of service information posters, the brand needed something bold to win the battle of wall space.

The logo was inspired by way-finding and product pricing tags at the likes of Borough Market or La Boqueria. The NEW MARKET was a legible signage-inspired typeface, made friendlier by the handmade descriptive typography, that was changeable for each area.

The Market Place.

The canteen style setup presented a great opportunity to split the customer flow up into a series of market stalls with different offerings.

The hotplate was the starting point for core food items. This was a street food style menu, which was carefully itemised into 3 parts to increase customer spend – a main protein, a side carbohydrate and a side vegetable/salad option, all priced individually to allow the easy upsell.

The second stall is the salad bar & deli, where customers could opt for the fresh, vibrant and healthy option.

The third stall ‘to go’ was quick-service items such as sandwiches, panini, fresh fruit, yoghurts, bottled drinks and juices, which gave customers an alternative to a cooked lunch.

The fourth stall was purely impulsive, a good old fashioned sweet shop with a vast range of pick ‘n’ mix. This was to tempt customers into an impulse buy or encourage them to return to quell a mid-afternoon crash.

Stall number five was a convenience stand that offered sundries such as newspapers, greetings cards, snacks and gifts. It was to provide customers an added value service, that kept them coming back.

The final stall was the coffee shop, which was the payment area. A new coffee machine was installed to wean people off heading out to Costa. The homemade cake display provided a great afternoon impulse and chance for the staff to easily up-sell.

All in all, the customer flow was logical, but most importantly, the stalls and product offering, meant that customers’ needs were satisfied throughout the working day.