SMALL and medium businesses heard they can succeed in winning defence contracts, at a recent event held in Worcestershire.

FinditinWorcestershire’s breakfast event held earlier this month provided advice and guidance to more than 150 local companies interested in becoming defence suppliers.

The Ministry of Defence's (MoD) Doing Business with Defence outreach team attended the meeting at Sixways, and gave a presentation with representatives from the Department of International Trade in London, about bidding for defence contracts including export – a step that can take many Worcestershire SMEs to a whole new level of success.

Lorna Jeynes, the business growth manager from Worcestershire County Council said: "I think people generally think of defence as cyber or military equipment, but as the largest purchaser in the UK – the defence sector needs all sorts from kennels, to educational services, facilities management to ration packs."

Philip Magerison, the MoD's supply chain development manager, added: "We want to make public sector procurement simpler for SMEs and the outreach team is the MoD focal point for the provision of advice and guidance to companies that are interested in engaging with us."