Meet the Buyer event - a major success!

Newham College’s Fit for Business project joined forces with Newham Council to reach out to local businesses in a ‘Meet the Buyer’ event, held on Friday 18^th June at Stratford Old Town Hall. Over 250 local businesses attended the event, along with 12 major buyers.

Part-financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund and led by Newham College, the Fit for Business project is helping local businesses to access contract and tendering opportunities in East London.

Aimed at East London businesses in all sectors wishing to tender for work with Newham Council and other East London buyers, the event saw over 250 businesses being given the opportunity to meet with Newham Council, their major suppliers and many other business support organisations to discuss forthcoming opportunities to supply.

The feedback from businesses that attended was very positive, they were overwhelmed by the amount of support and information provided. Many commented that meeting the buyers and finding out about new developments and procurement opportunities was an invaluable experience:

"I found the event informative and was able to network with companies on your supply chain by setting up further meetings.” Martin Chapman, Regional Sales Manager for Roc Furniture Ltd

Experts from Newham Council, CompeteFor and the Fit for Business team were on hand to meet businesses, answer their questions and help them access contracts and supply-chain opportunities. Major East London buyers attending included Newham Council, London 2012, Laing O’Rourke, Balfour Beatty, Jerram Falkus and many other companies looking for suppliers.

Newham Council also found the event useful, getting to know their suppliers enables them to improve their services, especially when it comes to managing tenders:

'We find we learn as much as our guests and this enables us to continue making improvements to the way we manage tenders'...'We were delighted at the level of response from our small and local suppliers and it really made us feel that we were providing a valuable and useful service through this event'. Procurement Team Newham Council.

To view presentations from the event click here.

To find out more or to join Fit for Business call 020 8522 5700 quoting Fit For Business or email fitforbusiness@newham.ac.uk