Inspired by the work carried out at Hinkley Point C by EDF, Solomons Europe developed the Swimming the Big Fish document. Laying out the latent potential for SMEs to deliver huge economic and social impact in West Cumbria if armed with the long-term contracts on offer through PPP. Our “Power 8” of SMEs show just what could be achieved with the right building blocks in place.

A few months later, we followed this document up with a a balanced “Barriers and Solutions” report. It delves into the challenges faced by SMEs and how they could be overcome with a shift in culture and approach to their procurement on major programmes at Sellafield – and beyond with other anchor institutions.

Both documents were well received by the Collaborative Procurement Group, which coomprised ambitious SMEs hungry for growth and key decision makers at Sellafield Ltd, PPP and big tier contractors. We established the group to get buy-in for our ambitious approach. Once this was secured, it was full steam ahead to develop a mechanism that will turn our collective hopes into reality.

The Swimming with the Big Fish SME Matchmaker Service was born.

You can download both of the documents below.