OBN Strikes Up Partnership with BioCity
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OBN has announced the closing of a long-term agreement with the BioCity group of sites that include BioCity in Nottingham, MediCity (BioCity at Boots) also in Nottingham, BioCity Newhouse (Scotland) and BioHub, Alderley Park, Manchester.
BioCity is the UK’s leading bioscience incubator and supports nearly 100 businesses. Taken together with OBN’s membership of 240 companies, the partnership has the buying power of 340 firms spanning the Golden Triangle of Oxford, London and Cambridge, as well as Nottingham, Manchester and Scotland.
Under the terms of the agreement, OBN will provide the BioCity tenant companies direct access to the OBN Purchasing Consortium which can offer substantial savings on everything from laboratory supplies, reagents and equipment right through to office stationery and furniture.
In addition, the tenants of BioCity will be able to take advantage of the procurement expertise and support to be provided by OBN’s new fulltime Purchasing Group Development Manager, Lee Pratley.
Lee joins OBN with more than 8 years’ experience in the sector and was most recently the Senior Technical Buyer at UCB where he negotiated significant laboratory capex savings (in excess of 25%).
Prior to UCB, Lee was the Senior Purchasing Officer at (OSI) Prosidion. His experience with small and large companies will only add to the support, advice and guidance that will be available to BioCity tenants and OBN members.
Commenting on the agreement Jon Rees, CEO of OBN, said, “OBN is delighted to be able to provide this valuable service to tenant companies within BioCity who will be able to generate significant cash saving benefits from immediate use of the scheme. OBN’s investment in our members’ interests, through the expertise of Lee Pratley, will mean that BioCity tenants and OBN members will also save significant management time through the purchasing support now available, especially around project initiation, ongoing buying and large capital purchases.”
Toby Reid, Director at BioCity, Nottingham added, “We are delighted to engage with OBN’s Purchasing Consortium and are very excited about the potential savings and the additional benefit of purchasing expertise that will be provided to support our companies.”
