Regional firms given procurement insight by major organisations
Small and medium sized businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire have been given an insight into how to bid for hundreds of millions of pounds worth of contracts with major organisations in the region.
Representatives from LEVC, Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust spoke at the launch of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce’s Go For Growth: Trade Local campaign.
The procurement experts gave the audience a series of pointers on how to make themselves stand out and how to give themselves the best chance of landing contracts with big companies and government bodies.
The launch was led by Louise Bennett, chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, and she was joined by Jeremy Moore, of the CWLEP Growth Hub, in discussing future plans to make it easier for SMEs to bid for work.
Mick Burn, Head of Procurement at Coventry City Council; David Bradley, Senior Category Manager of LEVC; Paul White, Strategic Procurement Manager of Warwickshire County Council; and Chris Dobson, Senior Procurement Officer at the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, gave their views and tips to the audience.
Louise said: “Go For Growth: Trade Local has been devised to get more companies across the patch doing business with one another, making the most of the goods and services available in the region.
“We also want to help small and medium sized companies to do business with major organisations in the region and this event with senior procurement professionals was extremely well attended and very informative.
“There were several pointers to take away from it. The first was, and this sounds obvious, to answer the questions that are asked during the tendering process – the feedback from our speakers was that it is amazing how many firms don’t do this.
“Our experts also urged businesses to make themselves stand out and seek out opportunities from big organisations because there is definitely a desire to procure locally.
“There was certainly an emphasis on smaller companies to make the first move and also to show how their business could provide a solution to a problem the big organisation is facing.
“As a Chamber we are here to support our members in growing their business and we use events such as this to provide as much information as possible.
“We are also in the process of launching an exciting new tool for businesses across the region, in partnership with the Growth Hub, that will enhance SMEs’ opportunities of winning new business.
“For us, it’s important that Go For Growth: Trade Local sees more and more companies across the area trading with each other and trying to keep as much of the wealth generated here as possible.”
Pictured: Back – Paul White and Louise Bennett. Front (left to right): Jeremy Moore, Chris Dobson, David Bradley, Mick Burn.
