Manchester Airport welcomes over 200 businesses to Meet the Buyer event

300 attendees from over 200 local businesses were able to meet directly with key prospective clients at Manchester Airport at its Meet the Buyer event.

Small and medium-sized businesses from a variety of sectors were represented and had the opportunity to network with 29 major buyers at the event. In total, almost 800 meetings took place 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 on 21st March 2024, 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 £1.3 billion 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.”