Written by: Kim

Published: January 18, 2017

Over the last six months Emirates Flight Catering has developed a strong working relationship with Dubai SME and on the 14^th December, we held an event, inviting members of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME. As a large organisation, we recognise that the support of local, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is important to our success as a company and this event was a great way of introducing them to our business and setting clear expectations on our standards and ways of working.

Amongst the guests attending the event were; Ms. Ibtihal Alnaji, Director of Enterprise Development and Ms. Thuraya Al Zarei, Principal Executive of the Government Procurement Programme. 

Our CEO, Saeed Mohammed opened up the event and was quick to demonstrate our commitment to supporting Dubai SME members through a new charter. Saeed also set down the challenge to Procurement to significantly increase our spend with local SME’s next year. This was met with rapturous applause.

Kieran Dowd, VP-Procurement gave a presentation that educated the audience on size and scale of our business whilst also setting out the minimum standards that must be met to work with us. Kieran also highlighted our desire to work with flexible and innovative suppliers that act more like business partners than suppliers. 

Following the presentations, there were lots of questions and an opportunity for further networking between buyers and suppliers. The event was a great success and marks the start of a proactive SME engagement programme aimed at driving mutual benefits to Emirates Flight Catering and the local SME community.