VIDEO and PICTURES: Walsall fruit and veg man celebrates 40 years of selling

Selling in Walsall's Butlers Precinct, Nigel Povey is now one of the most recognised faces in the borough.

His days start with a trip to Birmingham Wholesale Market at about 3am – but during the soft fruit season he can be up even earlier, sometimes arriving at 1am .

Trading runs in the family and it was Nigel's grandfather who first started selling fruit and veg when they emigrated from Ireland.

The 60-year-old first worked for his uncle before eventually going it alone, running three separate businesses and a market stall during his peak.

But with many independent retailers feeling the pressure from supermarkets, Nigel is now down to one greengrocers in Butlers Precinct, near Walsall bus station.

But he also used to sell in The Victorian Arcade.

He says the only real customers he gets today are those who have been with him from the start but admitted they were all 'one big happy family' who were helping him celebrate 40 years working as his own boss.

He said: "All our relations were in the business starting with my grandfather starting up the first market in Wednesbury.

"I began working with my uncle in 1966 when I was 11 years old and by February 17, 1976, I had gone on my own."

Once his first business was established, Nigel opened a second in The Victorian Arcade.

A third then followed in Butlers Precinct.

Nigel also ran a market stall, one day a week, for two years during the 1980s but eventually decided to reduce his trade to one outlet.

"We have always sold fruit, vegetables, plants, pickles – it's all very traditional.

"Of course a lot of things have changed during that time including and everything is online now and can be delivered straight to the door.

"We do not have that facility – we haven't even got a front door – but most of my customers have been with me from the word 'go'.

"We're one big happy family and I know all of them by their first names."