A one-to-one mentorship between East Renfrewshire Chamber member MacFire Ltd, and BAM Construction has led to significant results in the former’s tender capabilities and generated profitable revenues from new contracts.
MacFire Ltd, a small business based in East Renfrewshire, was matched with BAM to receive one-to-one mentoring, as part of BAM’s community benefit commitments, attached to their award of a major contract by East Renfrewshire Council.
In February 2019, BAM’s SME Procurement Manager presented at a Supply Chain event in Barrhead which was jointly hosted by East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce and East Renfrewshire Council. MacFire Ltd was introduced to BAM’s SME Procurement Manager at the event, and so was the start of an extremely positive and profitable relationship between the companies.
The East Renfrewshire area is benefitting from investment on a significant scale as a result of infrastructure programmes such as the Local Development Plan which will deliver over 1500 homes, and the Glasgow Region City Deal projects. East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce have been supporting their members to actively engage with the Principle Contractors who are awarded these projects; to access their supplier lists, meet procurement and contract managers, and improve their tendering capabilities.
MacFire Ltd are a great example of an SME who has utilised the Chamber’s network to engage with buyers at events and maximise the Chamber’s relationships with local enterprise support organisations such as Business Gateway and the council’s Economic Development team. As a result, they were first in line to meet BAM and take up the invitation to receive one to one mentoring when the opportunity arose.
Douglas MacGregor, Director of MacFire Ltd said:
“Thanks to the assistance and mentoring MacFire Ltd has received from East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce, we have built up a very worthwhile relationship with new customers such as BAM Construction Ltd to whom we are currently supplying orders on a regular basis. We also know that when it comes to tendering for larger works, we can ask BAM Construction for advice on best practice, hopefully ensuring success.
Also, through the contacts made via East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce, we have built up a profitable working relationship with other suppliers. This has provided us with other profitable revenue streams which we can sell along with our core services.”
Laura Molloy, President of East Renfrewshire Chamber said of the successful results;
“The Chamber has worked hard to put in place the mechanisms which allow our members to get sight of future and newly awarded projects so that they can put the plans in place to network and get onto the Principle Contractors lists. We know that often the issue is just getting a name, or five minutes with the buyer, so we have taken care to obtain and publish this information for our members. They are then responsible for getting themselves through the qualification process. MacFire Ltd have shown that by getting involved and striving to improve the quality of tender submissions, the benefits will surely follow; well done to them, they deserve it!”
Find out more about the benefits of joining the East Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce at
www.eastrenchamber.org.uk/register
