Partner Article

£700m contracts up for grabs

North East businesses were yesterday urged to bid for a share of the £700m pot of cash which is still waiting to be invested in firms in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics.

Despite press speculation that almost all of the procurement contracts related to the Olympics have already been allocated, organisers told the region yesterday that this is certainly not the case.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games urged North East to come forward and bid for contracts in a multitude of sectors including entertainment, PR, catering, sport equipment, transport and security.

LOCOG, which is charged with staging events – as opposed to the ODA that develops the infrastructure – said it still has £700m to invest in the next two years in businesses from all regions.

The organisation also said it is currently looking for a suitable venue in Newcastle to host a recruitment day next January for some of the 70,000 volunteers needed to stage the event.

LOCOG’s procurement programme manager Laurie Neville – who attended yesterday’s North East Business Exchange event – said:

“The majority of our procurement activity will be done this year and next. Now is the time to be putting yourself forward. There will be opportunities for regional business to stamp their flavour on the Games.”

One North East business which is hopeful of winning work on the Olympics is web development firm Wow Solutions of Durham.

The company has developed a niche for virtual reality stadium and venue tours which allow web users to view seating areas before they buy tickets.

Business development manager Gary Johnson said: “We are offering our services for the 2012 Olympics and have been to a lot of Olympic procurement meetings and met the people involved.”

Log on to bdaily’s website on Monday for an in-depth report into how your business can access lucrative Olympic contracts.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .