Manchester Airport’s Meet The Buyers event connects local businesses with potential new clients

Manchester Airport hosted its annual ‘Meet the Buyers’ event yesterday, with more than 300 attendees from over 200 local businesses taking the opportunity to connect directly with key prospective clients in the Greater Manchester area.

Small and medium-sized businesses from a variety of sectors were represented, networking with 29 major buyers and taking part in almost 800 meetings across the day. Well-known names from the worlds of construction and aviation were in attendance, including Manchester Airports Group (MAG), BAM, Dalkia, and Manchester City Council.

Manchester Airport hosted the event at its Runway Visitor Park, and the day opened with an address from the airport’s Managing Director, Chris Woodroofe.

A range of workshops and presentations ran throughout the day, parallel to the event in the Runway Visitor Park’s main hangar. Manchester Airport’s Head of Procurement and Contracts, Construction and Works, Stuart D’Henin, and Head of Project Delivery, David Shaw, gave a talk on the airport’s upcoming investments into its facilities, including the £1.3bn transformation of Terminal 2, and discussed the opportunities available to local businesses of all sizes. In the afternoon, Becca Heron, Strategic Director for Growth and Development at Manchester City Council, ran a workshop on the city’s vision for future growth.

Marcella M'Rabety, Group Head of Education, Skills and Employment at Manchester Airport, said: "We were thrilled to see such a strong turnout at Meet The Buyers, and to be able to support local businesses with networking and making introductions to the right contacts that will help them secure new work and grow their operations. Manchester Airport is proud to connect the North and that’s not just through flying people to the places they want to go, it’s also about playing our part as a key economic enabler in the region."