Scottish businesses snapping up opportunities to secure a bigger slice of Heathrow’s multi-billion pound supply chain

11/10/2019

OVER 90 Scottish businesses are gathered in Edinburgh to grab a larger piece of Heathrow’s multi-billion pound supply chain before the airport expands.

Landing in Scotland, Heathrow Airport’s biggest supplier conference – the Heathrow Business Summit – will give local businesses the opportunity to connect with the airport’s biggest suppliers. The event is being held in partnership with the Scottish Chamber of Commerce, Scottish Council for Development and Industry, local councils and key business groups.

As Heathrow works to deliver expansion, the airport is looking for innovative business from across Scotland to help find new and unique solutions to the challenges it faces when delivering a project of this scale. During the summit, Heathrow’s suppliers will be looking to establish connections with businesses that can support the construction of the expanded airport as well as offer sustainable solutions that will help to provide world-class passenger experience. Scottish firms have a long-history supplying the airport and most recently helping to build Terminal 2, also known as The Queen’s Terminal. Scottish businesses will continue to play a key role – the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the airport and the Scottish Government guarantees hundreds of millions of pounds spend with Scottish companies, securing thousands of new jobs.

This will be the third time Heathrow has taken its top suppliers to Scotland, enabling Scottish SMEs to connect with them during scheduled one-on-one meetings where they can get acquainted with Heathrow’s work standards and requirements, along with upcoming opportunities to supply.

Earlier this year, Heathrow also announced the four Scottish sites that remain in the running to potentially become Logistics Hubs. These sites are bidding to construct vital parts of the expanded airport off-site, before transporting them to the airport in consolidated loads. Rosyth Dockyard, Forth Ports Rosyth, Ayrshire Logistics Hub and Mossend International Rail Freight Park (MIRP) have all been shortlisted in this search. As agreed in the MoU, Heathrow will work with the Scottish Government to name one of these sites as a winner next year.

Heathrow’s Chief Commercial Officer Ross Baker said: “We are proud to be back in Scotland, a nation with thriving construction and tourism sectors that will help us to successfully build a third runway at Heathrow. This Summit further demonstrates our commitment to providing Scotland with thousands of new jobs, one of the first Heathrow off-site Logistics Hubs and numerous new investment opportunities with expansion.

“We remain focused on honouring the commitments within our MoU with the Scottish Government and look forward to seeing more Scottish businesses make their mark at Heathrow, by securing work with the expansion programme.”

Heathrow’s Business Summit has grown from ten last year to eleven events this year, putting Heathrow well on track to deliver on its commitment to establish Summits in all 12 regions of the UK by 2025.

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