NWUPC will be returning to University Place at The University of Manchester for our Annual Conference this year. We had such good feedback from the event last year that we decided to return this year. The theme for the Conference this year is Procure, Protect and Empower - Responsible Procurement through Managing Risk and Embedding Resilience, and we have a packed programme for the day to reflect this theme.

Despite the cold of early January, David and Jane had a very interesting time with the TUCO team at their North West Regional Meeting.It was held at R.Noone & Sons distribution centre based in Bredbury, Manchester. R.Noones are on the Fruit and Vegetables Framework with TUCO and are a family owned fresh produce supplier to the catering industry covering the North West region of England.

Representatives from NWUPC and Members of the Laboratory Category Group where lucky enough to be invited by Air Liquide for a tour of their Tunstall production site. During our visit a representative of Air Liquide, Jon Fletcher, gave a health and safety tutorial explaining that this was a lower tier COMAH site supplying gas to various sectors including the nuclear power industry and general energy industry across the UK.