On Thursday 22 April, X-Forces Enterprise, in collaboration with The Supply Chain Sustainability School, hosted an exclusive Meet the Buyer event for armed forces led businesses in the construction sector.
X-Forces Enterprise (XFE) has a core principle: providing wrap-around support to the Military in Business® community. This was a fantastic opportunity for current business owners, whether in the construction sector already, or wishing to trade within the sector, to broaden their horizons and build valuable connections for their business. The XFE Big Business supporting Small Business initiative was launched some four years ago. This event is another successful milestone for that initiative, thanks hugely to the collaboration with Balfour Beatty and The Supply Chain Sustainability School.
The event was structured into predetermined 1-to-1 meetings between 16 Big Business buyer organisations and 26 suppliers, interwoven with some larger group networking sessions. Suppliers received a ‘catalogue’ of buyers beforehand, in order to select the most appropriate buyers and make the strongest connections.
XFE Chairman, Martin Wing, spoke of the event:
“We were thrilled to have organised such a fantastic event for both the armed forces community and the construction sector. The feedback received from attendees on both sides of the table has been overwhelmingly positive, with strong connections being made across the board. The plethora of strong business qualities our armed forces community brings to the sector was there for everyone to see.”
Ian Heptonstall, Director, Supply Chain School,
“Access to procurement managers to discuss new ideas, new products and new solutions is really difficult for small businesses. It’s great to see that so many major contractors supported this initiative and opened their “virtual” doors to the potential new suppliers. Before the pandemic these events would be face to face, so it’s great to see that we have brought a real efficient online solution that allows those all-important one-to-one meetings.”
We are very much looking forward to providing another Meet the Buyer event to the X-Forces Enterprise & Military in Business® community in the near future. Sign up to the XFE newsletter to stay in the loop with upcoming events, workshops and networking opportunities.
What the small business suppliers had to say…
“I would like to say that this event has been fantastic – definitely one of the best of the Meet the Buyer events that I’ve attended over the past couple of years. Thank you to the XFE team for organising this, it has been really well run and I think XFE beneficiaries will do very well out of events like this.” Emma Davies, Director, Joint Force Alba
“I cannot thank you enough for organising this morning’s meet the buyer event. It was superb and far exceeded my expectations.” Neal Curran, Director of Compliance at Paragon Commercial Drone Specialists
“It was a fantastic opportunity because it’s not every day a small company like mine can get to meet with the supply chain of multi-million pound plus companies. My foot is now in the door and the door is starting to open.” John Burfield MIWFM, Director, Sand Lizard Tech
