the olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has urged suppliers to get involved with the event and attempt to win prestigious contracts ahead of the 2012 games.
The authority is running a bidding programme, CompeteFor, in the form of an online portal, to allow businesses to throw their names into the ring for potentially lucrative contracts in the build-up to, and during, the London 2012 Games.
CompeteFor is free and acts as a brokerage service between buyers along the London 2012 supply chain and potential suppliers. It also provides access to business support services; building skills and capacity to ensure that businesses across the UK can access opportunities linked to the hosting of the London 2012 Games.
Ros Seal, health and safety advisor for the ODA, who has a key role in developing produce contacts for staff working on the Olympic site, advised delegates at a Royal Show debate to put themselves in the running for contracts in supplying caterers and stalls on site.
She said: “The site is very clear about what we can offer to you as a business. We have looked at what we can do in terms of organic, locally sourced products so far with [food and farming adviser] Sustain and this will continue,” she said.
Seal, who has toured New Spitalfields wholesale market opposite the Olympic site with the market’s corporate business development manager Tim Williams, told FPJ: “We are very aware of the London Development Agency’s (LDA) commitment to local food and where we would like to go with that.
“We are neither for, nor against, supplying from specific businesses but we have given them the opportunity, with CompeteFor, to inform us that they are here in the area. It’s about facilitating the local suppliers, then influencing contracts and giving an informed choice.”
Seal has been working to promote healthy eating to 4,500 workers on site at the development - a number set to rise to 9,000 in October.
CompeteFor has been developed on behalf of the English Regional Development Agencies and UK Devolved Administrations by the LDA.
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