A NEWPORT fruit and vegetable stall has moved to a new pitch in the city centre.

Fruit Machine was located on Upper Dock Street but has moved to a spot on Commercial Street now the old bus station has closed.

Yesterday was the stall’s first day of trading after Christmas and the stall's owner Chris Williams said he expected to sell to more passing trade now it has moved.

He said: “We had a good trade in the original spot but it was the bus station closing that made it uneconomical.”

But he said the new stall was “looking quite promising” and that by midday yesterday it had served “a couple of hundred people”, far more than they had served after the bus station had closed.

Mr Williams, 59, started the stall 28 years ago and lives in Llanvaches. He first started it when he was working on his father’s farm and started to sell his own vegetables in the upstairs area of Newport Indoor Market. The stall later moved downstairs within the market and then outside its stall on Upper Dock Street.

He grows some of his vegetables, like potatoes, beans and beetroot, and buys all his other goods from Cardiff and Bristol wholesale markets. On weekdays he has to be awake by 5.30am to get the stall ready but on Saturdays he is awake by 4am.