SMALL businesses had the chance to pitch their wares to a host of the region’s biggest companies at a meet-the-buyer event.
Bristol City Council teamed up with the Bristol branch of the Federation of Small Businesses to stage the event at the Regus, Temple Quay. Dozens of small firms grasped the opportunity and were given up to five one-to-one appointments to try to persuade big companies to enlist them as suppliers.
Key public- and private-sector procurers, such as the University of the West of England, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Mitie and the Bristol and Weston NHS Purchasing Consortium, took part.
Bristol’s FSB chairman Ken Simpson said: “It can be very difficult for small-and medium-sized enterprises to know how to win public-and-private-sector procurement contracts. So to get owners of small businesses in front of the people who can give them business and start to develop key relationships was a major step forward.”