East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce launched a new strategy in August 2017 to facilitate business opportunities for their Supply Chain members arising from numerous major projects planned over the next five years within the area. Infrastructure, tourism and over 1050 new homes are just a selection of the projects leading from the Glasgow City Deal and Local Authority’s Local Development Plan developments.
To facilitate their member’s access to the local business opportunities, the Chamber works closely with East Renfrewshire Council’s (ERC) Community Benefits Officer to create a process of information whereby an up to date pipeline of all major projects is made available to the Chamber. This is published within the Members area of the Chamber’s website along with each project’s stage of procurement or where it has been awarded, the name of the Contractor. The Chamber then liaise with the Contractor to publish details of their forthcoming projects, their Supplier List application form or process, and the name and email to submit it to.
The process that has been put in place to enable members to identify which Primary Contractor or House Builder is active in the area, and crucially gives them tangible means to start the process toward winning sub-contracts; to see the trades or projects they have won; the entry point to apply to their approved list in order to apply for sub-contracts; and the name and email of the right person within their business to submit their entry form to. This helps them to overcome the barriers many SME’s report they find when trying to pin point how to apply and who is the right person within a large business to speak to.
To date a total of eleven projects have been listed within the pipeline, with Supplier List information from two house builders and three construction companies published within the tenders and contracts section including Robertson, CCG (Scotland) Ltd, Taylor Wimpey West Scotland, George Leslie and Miller Homes. The Chamber recently met with Paul Masterton MP to raise the profile of the process the Chamber has put in place to ensure its members have the best possible access to this information.
To date, Chamber member archiSTarchi Ltd, a locally based architectural firm, has been awarded a design contract by George Leslie Ltd, for a renovation project for their premises in Barrhead. Other Supply Chain businesses are encouraged to join East Renfrewshire Chamber to take advantage of the business developments opportunities that they have put in place.
