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Small businesses go for gold

Date Added: Fri October 2 2009
More than 1,000 UK businesses to date have won contracts worth over £5bn from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) as the venues and infrastructure needed for the Games and legacy continue to take shape. These contracts have in turn created thousands more supply chain opportunities.

The new figures published today show that small businesses continue to win the bulk of work and that the supply chains are spread across the UK. For example a Scottish company has designed the electrical substation, a Welsh company is providing the steel for the Aquatics Centre roof and a company from Bolton is providing the steel for the Olympic Stadium.

Delivering the London 2012 Games requires a huge range of goods, works and services from an enormous variety of firms, from construction, engineering and manufacturing to creative, merchandising and retail.

Of the 1,036 suppliers that have won £5bn worth of work with the ODA:
98 per cent are UK based
68 per cent are small and medium sized (where company size is known)
46 per cent are based outside London
One in ten are based in one of the five Host London Boroughs.

ODA Chairman John Armitt said: 'Thousands of companies across the UK are already winning gold from London 2012. Businesses of all sizes and from every sector are working together to deliver the largest project this country has seen for generations and are reaping the benefits of millions of pounds worth of work. For example, a Scottish company has won a contract to build the Basketball structure and a Northern Irish company is constructing the main pedestrian bridge within the Olympic Park."

London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) Chair Seb Coe said: 'With three years to go until the summer of 2012, LOCOG is beginning its procurement journey in earnest.  The challenge of staging a Games requires the support and expertise of hundreds of thousands of people – including UK businesses both large and small.  As we prepare to give the athletes the best possible chance of performing at their best come Games-time, we are also offering UK plc a unique opportunity to be part of our journey and create a lasting legacy of skilled businesses fit and ready to compete on the global stage.'

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: 'We're past the halfway mark to the London 2012 Games and this £5billion milestone shows the benefits they are already bringing, not just to London but the whole of the country. There are many more opportunities and I encourage businesses of all sizes to bid for contracts, including through the CompeteFor programme. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for companies who will be able to say that they were involved in the creation of the London 2012 Games.'