Cornwall Chamber of Commerce and Pendennis Shipyard teamed up for a Meet the Buyer event.

The superyacht custom build and refit company, one of Cornwall’s largest private sector employers, opened its doors to Cornish businesses, allowing them to bypass any of the standard processes and get in front of the shipyard’s buyers to pitch their products and services.

The event, organised by Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, attracted a variety of different businesses offering everything from photography to rope access services.

Terry Drake, of Grosvenor Pumps said: "I managed to close two follow up meetings with decision makers from today's pitch which certainly saved me lots of time and made the chamber event extremely productive and valuable."

After a networking breakfast, each company was paired up with an appropriate Pendennis buyer and had the chance to have an informal discussion about their products and services. Rope access company, GeoRats said: “We weren’t sure if our services would be of use to Pendennis, but as a start-up we considered that pitching would be good experience for us anyway. The buyers ended up telling us what we could do for them, and we left with a follow-up meeting in the diary.”

Kim Conchie, chief executive of Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, said: “The role of your chamber of commerce is to facilitate opportunities like this. We all know how difficult it can be to get to the right person in a business that’s as large as Pendennis Shipyard. It’s fantastic that the directors have given Cornwall’s businesses an opportunity to speak informally to their buyers, and that it always tries to source suppliers locally where possible. We hope to do more events with Pendennis in the near future.”

Pendennis' joint managing director, Mike Carr, said: “Pendennis is delighted to be able to support the local economy by partaking in events such as Meet the Buyer. The people of Cornwall have a unique entrepreneurial spirit and this event provided a great opportunity for Pendennis to be presented with a wide variety of businesses with interesting service offerings.”