BELFAST BRIEFING:IN JUST 86 days, Northern Ireland's Cunningham Covers will be hoping to deliver a medal-winning performance come rain or shine at the venue for one of the most hotly anticipated sporting events of the year.
The 40-year-old family firm will supply the huge tarpaulin covers for the London 2012 Olympics beach volleyball centre at Horse Guards Parade in the centre of London.
The volleyball teams and their eye-catching outfits may have already attracted more than their fair share of attention from certain quarters ahead of the games. But once the Olympics officially start on July 27th, it is not just the athletes that will be in the spotlight.
A host of companies from Northern Ireland will also take up the baton as official Olympic suppliers and contractors.
Construction firms, technology businesses and textile manufacturers are among the businesses that are already winners before the games even kick off.
Their determination to play a part in the lucrative multibillion- pound Olympic spectacle this summer is helping to sustain jobs and businesses in the North.
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) is unable to put a firm value on the total business won by Northern Ireland firms to date but there is little doubt that, even by early estimates, the Olympics present a golden opportunity for certain local firms to strike gold.
Locog has reported that at least 43 local firms have won more than £40 million of major Olympic contracts. However it says this does not represent the full extent of the boost that the London 2012 Olympics could deliver to the North’s economy as a result of contracts awarded to local firms.
Locog is keen to stress how the economic benefits will reverberate across the UK because of the very nature of the large number of participating businesses.
It highlights how many local companies such as Logan’s Travel, the Dunloy family-owned firm that is one of the largest coach hire operators in Ireland, are set to play a key role in the event. Logan’s Travel together with Belfast-based Translink will supply coaches for use throughout the games.
A substantial number of construction, engineering and specialist supply companies in the North such as HJ Martin, Macrete Concrete and Lagan Construction were also out of the starting blocks early when it came to winning Olympic contracts.
Toomebridge-based Macrete supplied the parapet support structures for bridges and roads in the Olympic Park, while the McGrath Group in Lisburn provided the architectural metal work for the Olympic Stadium.
Tyrone-based Boyd Bedding, the sole supplier of wood shavings for the extensive equestrian section, the McAvoy Group and Ulster Weavers have also secured valuable new business as a result of the London Olympics.
There has been heated debate about whether the Olympics in general will deliver a much-needed boost for the UK’s economy this year. A report by Visa Europe suggests the UK will see a £750 million consumer spending surge over the duration of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Even against the generally gloomy economic backdrop in the UK, Visa has predicted the spending boost will deliver “a sustained stimulus worth a total of £5.1 billion to the UK economy by 2015”.
So is there a way for the North to benefit?
Additional economic research from business advisers PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) suggests hosting the Olympics can speed up the economic development of the host country by up to three decades.
Analysis by PwC 12 months after the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games showed strong evidence that not only did the games deliver a jobs boost – in the case of London it is projected that it will generate 40,000 jobs – but that the Olympics also creates an economic ripple effect.
Companies that won contracts deserve more than a pat on the back for being top of their game. Did some businesses and key organisations though not fully embrace the Olympic spirit and recognise the opportunities that the games present?
This is a point raised in connection with the 27 venues in Northern Ireland that were listed as suitable pre-Olympic training camps. These represented an opportunity to boost local communities through the investment teams would make during their stay and also to promote the North as both a cultural and tourist destination.
It turns out that only nine teams are training in the North ahead of the games. Why is this?
Have the people promoting the North as a training venue been lacking in Olympic motivation? Either way, it is a missed opportunity and definitely no medal-winning performance by Carál Ní Chuilín, the North’s Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, and her team.
