NEW OPPORTUNITIES AT OLYMPICS FOR LOCAL COMPANIES

Thursday 6th May 2010
A special business seminar to help local companies pinpoint new opportunities from the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics was held in Belfast today. Briefing companies about the next phase of opportunities were experts from the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). The event was held in association with Invest Northern Ireland. Gerry Walsh, Director of LOCOG's procurement team updated local businesses about the contract opportunities to supply goods, works and services to the Games, and provided further details about the scope of what is required and the expected timeframes for purchasing. Vicky Kell, Invest NI Trade Director, said: ???LOCOG will issue 5,000 direct contracts over the next two years. The tenders are very competitive but some local companies have already been shortlisted to tender, so the opportunities are real. ???Local companies need to have their details published on the CompeteFor web portal to bid for this work. CompeteFor offers a free service to businesses to enable them to compete for contract opportunities linked to the 2012 Games and other major public and private sector buying organisations. ???Businesses also must be able to demonstrate that they have sound quality and environmental systems in place as well as meeting other mandatory criteria such as health and safety and equality policies,??? she adds. Invest NI can provide advice and guidance to assist companies to address these areas and have made information available through two websites: nibusinessinfo.co.uk and investni.com/2012games.??? LOCOG plans toprocure an enormous range of contracts via CompeteFor. To date some 600 Northern Ireland companies have published their profiles on the CompeteFor portal and have already started to bid for contracts. Over the past two years Invest NI has been promoting business opportunities and supporting companies to bid for contracts. To date some 17 local companies have won 2012 contracts and with LOCOG opportunities now being procured, companies need to be ready to bid. Companies can follow published opportunities on CompeteFor.com and Invest NI will also send out a Twitter message about new opportunities so that companies are given information as early as possible. Delivering the Games will require a vast array of goods, works and services worth around £700 million. Approximately 5,000 direct contracts procured by LOCOG are expected to generate up to 25,000 supply chain opportunities for businesses across the United Kingdom.Opportunities will ramp up from 2010 and you will be able to track them on CompeteFor, as and whendetails are posted, provided you have a fully published business profile.LOCOG has already placed orders with suppliers in every UK Nation and Region, so now is a good time to make sure that your CompeteFor business profile is published and presented as effectively as possible.LOCOG will expect businesses to use CompeteFor to register their interest in these opportunities. LOCOG's main areas of procurement are:
  • Artists, Performance & Events
  • Sports
  • Security
  • Technology
  • Services
  • Transport & Logistics
  • Soft Facilities & Catering
  • Venues & Hard Facilities Management
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