SMALL FIRMS IN SOUTH WEST URGED TO SIGN UP FOR GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS
Small firms in the South West are being urged to sign up to the government’s Supply.2gov.uk website and to take advantage of the thousands of government contracts available.
More than 123,000 companies nationwide have already signed up to the website, which provides an up to the minute database of government contracts for small businesses wishing to supply to the public sector.
Suppliers who have signed up to the site receive advice on how best to access government contracts and a free daily email alert notifying them of new opportunities that are relevant to their business.
To date, more than 108,000 contract opportunities have been advertised through the Supply2.gov.uk portal with an average of 3,500 new opportunities per month – around seven per cent of the opportunities have been in the South West.
One company to benefit from using the portal is Bristol-based Commercial Transfer Ltd, which specialises in commercial only removals and storage. The company registered with the portal shortly after it was launched in 2006 and has since won a number of contracts, including one worth in excess of £100,000 for Sherwood Forest Hospital Trust.
Dave Seward, Business Development/ Environmental Manager for Commercial Transfer Ltd, said:
“We have subscribed to other similar contractor websites before but the benefits of using the Supply2.gov.uk portal is that it has a much greater reach and advertises contracts of all sizes, not just major ones. For small businesses it can be a really useful way of finding out about small, local contracts as well as much bigger, long-term contracts. We have tendered for and won several contracts of varying sizes through the portal and I would definitely recommend other businesses to register. It is an ideal way to keep in touch with hundreds of business opportunities.”
Regional Minister for the South West, Ben Bradshaw, said:
“Every year the government spends many billions of pounds on public sector contracts. It is vital that we actively help small and medium sized companies take advantage of these business opportunities. In the current economic climate this is more important than ever. The supply.2gov.uk website is a crucial tool for this”.
“SMEs often have smaller overheads, local knowledge and great flexibility. Often they can offer the public sector better value for money than big business”.
Supply2.gov.uk Marketing Brand Manager Fiona Campbell said:
"A recent refresh to the Supply2.gov.uk website in November 2008 has ensured the site is a more user friendly platform where registrants can benefit from increased information and better navigation.
“A key feature of the service, such as the Daily Email Alert profile, allows suppliers to match their contract search results exactly with their business requirements. Additional resources and information on interoperability relationships have also become more prominent on the site in order to further enhance the contract notification service."