Leeds traders slam council decision to let Subway to give away free food in front of local stalls in Kirkgate Market

The global sandwich company were in the food court yesterday promoting their vegan sandwich by offering free samples.

Traders were not informed of the move beforehand and the decision was criticised on social media after a photo of the pop-up was shared by a stall owner.

Sengy Tang, who runs Vietnamese outlet Banh & Mee, posted: "A notorious month where independent traders are struggling someone has decided to let Subway promote in our food court area! Giving out free food!"

Speaking with the Yorkshire Evening Post, Sengy explained that no one had forewarned them about Subway's marketing stunt.

Sengy, who owns Banh & Mee with wife Mylinh Chiem, explained: "No one told us it was happening so we turned up yesterday to find them right behind our stall.

"We weren't happy about it.

"We have been offering vegan food since we opened and a lot of the traders specialise in vegetarian food so maybe Subway thought there was a market for their vegan subs here.

"However, we thought it was a strange decision from the market management to let an outside multi-million pound company in a market to target our customers.

"We thought it was wrong and that's why we tweeted it.

"It was nice to see people agree and we received a lot of support.

"It was reassuring to see the community in Leeds rally around us."

He added: "The market managers came spoke to us today and apologised and said they didn't think about how it would affect us.

"I don't think it was a malicious decision, I just don't think they thought about the consequences on traders. It was just a bad decision."

Leeds sisters Anna and Beth Shindler run Columbian-inspired street food stall Kannassa.

They said the decision was "ludicrous."

Beth said: "We find it really odd that someone made the decision to invite a global corporate chain that already has a monopoly around most city centres in the world, directly into the centre of a market that is supposed to be championing independent, small businesses.

"Not only that, placing them directly in the Market kitchen next to Bahn & Mee was quite frankly ludicrous. Bad move Leeds city council."

A Leeds City Council spokesperson said: “The market was approached by the company concerned asking for permission to film customers’ reactions to a new meat substitute sandwich they have launched for Veganuary.

"We understand the free food being referred to, was a small taster of the sandwich so they could gauge reactions from people.

"The booking was taken as a venue for filming rather than as a trading opportunity and a small fee was charged.

"During the day, market traders let it be known that their view was that the activity was having a negative impact on certain food traders.

"We are happy to follow up those concerns with individual traders and would encourage them to make contact with the Market office for further discussions.

"We value all feedback received and we will consider it fully to inform how we manage requests of this nature in the future.”

A spokesperson for Subway said: "We're sorry to hear that some local market traders were not happy with our filming event in the historic Kirkgate Market yesterday.

"The market kindly gave us permission to sample bite-sized pieces of our new Meatless Meatball Marinara Sub, with some of the surrounding traders also taking part in the taste test. We did this with the help of our local Subway Stores, who are all proudly locally-owned and operated."