Porterbrook welcomed representatives from over 120 organisations to its first ever Supplier Conference, which was held at Derby County Football Club on the 13th of June.

Over 200 people attended the event, representing existing and potential Porterbrook suppliers, trade associations, government departments and transport authorities. The conference featured presentations from Porterbrook senior executives who outlined the company’s commitment to collaboration and partnership.

Mary Grant, Porterbrook’s CEO, opening the conference said “We want to be the UK market leading provider of rail leasing and asset management support. To do this we need to form close partnerships with you, our suppliers.

“Ultimately what we have to provide is a quality-driven service to our TOC customers, always keeping in mind the needs and aspirations of their passengers. But we cannot do this alone, we need the help of our supply chain”.

Mary also reminded the conference that in 2018 Porterbrook would spend almost £130m in the rolling stock after-market and had live contracts in place with over 100 UK based suppliers.

Anvesh Prasad, Head of Procurement said “Collaboration is key to the future of our business. We want to engage early with suppliers, explore their innovations and build deep and long term partnerships that benefit our customers, the supply chain and Porterbrook.”

The conference concluded with break-out groups where attendees had the opportunity to discuss with senior executives their ideas on how Porterbrook could improve customer-experience, maintenance and reliability, as well as suggestions on innovative products that would keep the company’s fleets attractive to both customers and passengers. Porterbrook undertook to review all the submitted ideas and will provide feedback on next steps to each of the organisations that contributed to the event.

Porterbrook also confirmed that its Supplier Conference would become an annual event. The date for the 2019 Supplier Conference will be announced shortly.