At a breakfast meeting at Norwich City Football Club, Norfolk Chamber hosted John Holland-Kaye, the CEO of London Heathrow Airport, who came to talk to local businesses about the economic benefits and the opportunities available as a result of expansion at London Heathrow.
Mr Holland-Kaye outlined that Heathrow were looking to become the best connected airport in the world, with more flights and a new runway by 2025. The £14 billion privately funded project will open up supply chain opportunities across the UK – including here Norfolk. He also noted that the Heathrow expansion project was not governed OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) and that their preferred option was for a predominantly UK based supply chain.
He also advised that Heathrow was looking to take the lead in a new way to deliver large scale infrastructure projects by building their key components away from the airport and assembling them locally. This is a method that is becoming more prevalent internationally, which the UK has not fully adopted yet. To achieve this, they will be creating four logistic hubs – for which Great Yarmouth is one of 65 bids from across the UK. Heathrow has already committed to one of the logistic hubs being located in Scotland, however the other three hub locations have yet to be decided.
To help develop their supply chain for the Heathrow expansion, they will be holding a series of Business Summits across the UK – the nearest one to our region is being held at Colchester on Tuesday 17 April 2018 and is free to attend.
There will be speed-networking sessions to improve networking opportunities and connectivity. Also in attendance will be Heathrow’s Commercial and Procurement teams, to answer questions about business opportunities available at the airport. To date, Heathrow have advised that an estimated £93.4 million of new deals have been won by businesses as a result of the partnerships formed at their Business Summits.
Why Attend?
- The Heathrow Business Summits each provide a great platform for SMEs to get a foot in the door and capitalise on the business opportunities available at Heathrow
- Promote your business to Heathrow’s supply chain through face-to-face appointments on the day
- Meet and network with other businesses visiting the event.
- Meet with the Department of International Trade to explore exporting opportunities
- Meet and network with exhibitor partners including the Local Councils, Chambers of Commerce, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and the Department for International Trade.
- Meet local colleges and universities to support your skills and recruitment needs.
- All exhibitors actively support and guide businesses on how to connect and build trade relations into new supply chains at Heathrow
