Industrial Fire Protection

CompeteFor Gives Leicestershire Firm a Boost

A Leicestershire firm is reaping the benefits of CompeteFor, the brokerage service between buyers and suppliers throughout the supply chain for London 2012.

Leicester-based Industrial Fire Protection specialises in the design, supply and installation of passive fire protection. Employing five staff at its Leicester base and teams of operatives working on sites across the country, IFP Ltd employ fully qualified fire engineers with advanced knowledge and experience in the field of fire dynamics.

This expertise was one of the things that helped the firm win a contract to design supply and fit soffit insulation to the undersides of the concrete floors in the main Olympic stadium. The work, which upgraded the floors to reduce thermal loss, will allow hospitality suites, other rooms and seating to be built directly onto the concrete floors safely and with a considerable reduction in loss of heat, all helping in the carbon concerns for modern construction activities.

The contract was won after the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) approached the firm and introduced it to CompeteFor, which is London 2012’s website for the publication of contract opportunities. Managing director, Kevin Amerigo, said, “We were told that we needed to register on the website in order to improve our chances of winning any of the work relating to the Games - or future project work within the CompeteFor national web based leads service.

“Signing up was easy and the ODA even invited us down to London to talk through the process. Shortly after uploading our profile we received the opportunity to tender for the soffit insulation work.”

The contract was worth a substantial amount to the firm and the work was carried out over a six-month period in the first half of 2009. Now Kevin is keen to tender for other projects on the site. He added, “We receive regular emails that inform us of relevant projects and this enables us to respond to potential opportunities quickly and easily. In fact we have had many notifications come through so we have had to start filtering for the ones we choose to progress.

“CompeteFor is particularly useful for keeping our name front of mind with the big contractors that are working on London 2012 projects. While we try and speak to and see as many of our contacts as we can, there’s not always enough time and the website means our name is always there.”

As well as allowing businesses across the UK to benefit from London 2012 investment, CompeteFor also provides access to business support services to build skills and capacity up to and beyond the London 2012 Games.

For further information on the opportunities that exist in the London 2012 supply chain or to submit a business profile, visit www.competefor.com