Case studies

Exploring Veolia’s Corporate Partnership Success with SDP

Veolia, partnered with the Supplier Development Programme in April 2025, to help expand its Scottish supply chain, by participating in SDP networking events and outreach activities.

Background

Veolia was founded in 1853 and has been operating in the UK since 1966. Now the UK leader in resource management, Veolia provides a comprehensive range of waste, water and energy management services designed to build the Circular Economy and protect the environment.

Becoming an SDP Partner 

Since partnering with the Supplier Development Programme (SDP), Veolia has exhibited annually at SDP Meet the Buyer National and North events. These events connected Veolia with hundreds of Scottish SMEs and gave its team another platform to discuss its £70 million project pipeline directly with suppliers.

As a result of attending both Meet the Buyer National and North, Veolia were able to connect with over 10 warm leads, with 2-3 of these companies currently supplying to them on projects with a 3–4-year sales cycle.

Driving Engagement with SMEs

As well as exhibiting at SDP Meet the Buyer events, Veolia worked with SDP to deliver a targeted marketing campaign to SDP’s network, raising awareness of Veolia’s £70 million project pipeline of work. This enabled Veolia to create an accessible entry point for SMEs and begin onboarding suppliers, to ensure they meet minimum requirements before the projects go live.

A news story about Veolia’s pipeline was featured on the SDP website, reaching over 100 visitors to the site.

This news story was also circulated as an email to SDP suppliers working within relevant sectors. The email campaign drove 263 clicks back to Veolia’s website and 141 clicks to SDP’s Meet the Buyer National event page, where Veolia were exhibiting.

Veolia has subsequently worked with eleven suppliers referred from SDP’s news story and email campaign, highlighting the success.

Evidencing Social Value

Through its partnership with SDP, Veolia demonstrates its commitment to Community Wealth Building aims by opening opportunities for SMEs, supporting business growth, and building resilient, collaborative supply chain relationships.

Making Connections with Local Authorities

Veolia presence at Meet the Buyer National events also allowed its Hazardous and Commercial Waste teams to engage directly with over 20 local authorities who were also exhibiting, strengthening relationships and increasing the visibility of opportunities for SMEs within local supply chains.

Since connecting with these local authorities, Veolia has been actively applying to work with local authorities to deliver projects, with many RFI (Request for Information) responses submitted with hopes of these resulting in projects in the near future.

Veolia’s Experience of Working with the Supplier Development Programme

Stewart Mckenzie, Business Development Lead (Energy) Scotland said:

“Veolia’s involvement with the Supplier Development Programme has been extremely valuable in helping us strengthen our supply chain management and develop new relationships with Scottish businesses.

“By attending Meet the Buyer events and engaging with suppliers through the Programme, we have been able to identify capable, experienced and locally based organisations that can support the delivery of our projects.”

Stewart said SDP events had given Veolia a chance to explain its requirements, understand the capabilities available in the Scottish market and build relationships early in the procurement process.

He added: “This is particularly important as we continue to grow our energy business in Scotland. We are increasingly focused on delivering sustainable, low-carbon energy solutions for the public sector, including energy efficiency, decarbonisation projects and heat networks.

“Working with local businesses that have the right technical expertise, knowledge of the Scottish market and a shared commitment to the energy transition will be essential to successfully delivering these projects and creating wider economic value within local communities.”

Stewart explained that the SDP team made exhibiting easy.

He concluded: “Gillian, Amy, Lynzie and the rest of the SDP team are consistently supportive, approachable and proactive in helping us make the most of events and providing assistance whenever needed.”

Keen to expand your supply chain opportunities across Scotland?

Find out more about becoming a partner of SDP here.