UMi helps SMEs soar high with London Stansted Airport opportunities
On Tuesday 22 November, we gathered more than 100 small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) at the Raddison Blu Stansted for the London Stansted Airport Meet the Buyers event to meet and sell to major buyers from the airport and its tier 1 supply chain.
With 22 buyers in attendance, there was a wealth of opportunities on offer for SMEs to meet and sell to a wide range of buyers, providing new and innovative solutions and products that will help the airport and its partners to complete projects in the long and short-term future.
In addition to the one-to-one meetings with buyers and networking with fellow local SMEs, the suppliers met 13 exhibitors such as Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), BEST Growth Hub, and Backing Essex Business, and attended seminar sessions on Net Zero aviation strategy, opportunities for the East of England, and talent retention.
We developed and managed the event on behalf of London Stansted Airport, part of Manchester Airport Group (MAG), with the support of Marketing Kinetics.
This year’s event saw prestigious buyers such as Spie UK, Strutt & Parker, Kier, HSS Hire and Costain provide an insight into what they are looking for from prospective suppliers.
Previous years have seen more than £20m worth of contracts placed as a result of London Stansted Airport Meet the Buyers.
UMi’s Chief Executive, Nicki Clark OBE, said: “We are delighted to have worked with London Stansted Airport and its partners to make it easier for local SMEs to win contracts and build lasting relationships with them. Working together with our partners, bringing buyers and local suppliers together paves the way for everyone to do more and go further.”
Stansted Airport Managing Director, Gareth Powell, said: "London Stansted is a key enabler of economic growth and productivity in the region, employing more than 12,000 people across 200 companies, and we consider it our duty to support the region's SMEs and promote their entrepreneurial spirit.
"Businesses and SMEs in the region deserve to benefit from our success, and we want to provide them with routes and destinations that will enable them to connect and trade globally.”
Robert Lee, Managing Director of Marketing Kinetics, said: "We're all excited to see Meet the Buyers back as it's such an important event for the local business community.
"After a challenging couple of years, it provided a fantastic opportunity for small business owners to finally meet suppliers face-to-face and pitch their products and services directly to them."
Kirsty Muir of LPL Construction Services and Paul Mayes of 48th Contracting Squadron attended the event.
Kirsty Muir said: “It was a fantastic opportunity to meet new and existing suppliers. Great organisation from all involved. This created a positive and dynamic working atmosphere which benefited everyone.”
Paul Mayes said: “As usual we have found the event to be very worthwhile and valuable in securing new vendors for future projects. One of our major obstacles is vendor outreach and events such as these fulfil our brief. Thanks, and keep up the good work.”
If you are interested in attending next year’s event as a buyer or supplier, you can register your interest by emailing erin.wilkinson@weareumi.co.uk or paul.clark@weareumi.co.uk.