Manchester Airport welcomes 270 SMEs to annual Meet The Buyers event

Representatives of over 270 Northern SMEs attended an annual Meet The Buyers event at the Runway Visitor Park, Manchester Airport, on 24th March.

Attendees had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with procurement teams from 28 major businesses in the aviation and hospitality sectors at the airport. Around 800 pre-arranged face-to-face appointments took place across the course of the day, with a schedule of presentations, workshops and networking events offering businesses further opportunities to connect.

The programme included a workshop on how to successfully secure contracts through effective bidding and tendering, a talk from Manchester City Council on inclusive growth and social value. Manchester Airport Skills Hub also ran a session at the Meet The Buyers event looking in-depth at how businesses can futureproof themselves by upskilling their workforce.

Marcella M’Rabety, Head of Social Sustainability at Manchester Airport, said:

“We take pride in our role in connecting people across the North with the places they want to fly to, but we also take our responsibilities very seriously as a major employer and economic driver in the region. The airport directly employs more than 3,400 people and indirectly supports almost 20,000 jobs – adding billions of pounds in value to the regional economy in partnership with the businesses that operate on our site, ranging from hotels and restaurants to airlines and aviation service companies.

“Our position at the heart of all that makes us uniquely placed to run an event such as Meet The Buyers, where we are able to give SMEs in our region the chance to meet with procurement teams at some of the biggest names in our industry and explore the opportunities available to work together, to the benefit of the wider North.”