Meet the Buyer – Go-Ahead

Delegates from a range of industries gathered in Crawley Civic Hall for an opportunity to hear from members of Go-Ahead’s procurement team held on behalf of the University of Brighton’s Green Growth Platform.

The Go-Ahead Group are one of the UK’s largest providers of passenger transport with over one billion journeys taken a year, and operating several household name rail and bus services in Sussex and the South East, including Govia Thameslink, Southern Railway, Metrobus and Brighton & Hove Buses.

Go-Ahead were keen to meet local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their local supply chain across three main areas of the business; rail, bus and indirect.

Delegates were able to hear from head of Rail Procurement Antoinette Scorey, head of Bus Procurement Linda Crabtree and head of Indirect Procurement Elise Shuker, on Go-Ahead’s procurement processes and also their focus on sustainability. It was a chance to learn what sort of items that Go-Ahead procure across these departments and how the tendering process works.

After the presentations there was time for further networking and refreshments before the morning ended with a series of 5-minute one-to-one appointments with the Go-Ahead team, to provide delegates a chance to introduce their company’s services.

Go-Ahead currently have 2,500 approved suppliers/contractors, however they are keen to broaden this out and work with more local SMEs.

Download presentations.

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The Green Growth Platform supports a thriving and innovative green sector in Sussex through a unique menu of business services delivered by a team of industry specialists, business advisers and university experts. The Platform offers businesses 1-2-1 coaching, events and networking, innovation and R&D support and skills and training.

The Sustainable Business Network is pleased to be working in partnership with the Green Growth Platform to run a series of networking events, site tours and specialist seminars.