Sands China hosts trade session for local SME suppliers

Sands China hosted its fourth invitational matching session yesterday, featuring 10 participating local small and medium enterprises (SME) that offer sustainability-related products and services.

The matching session is part of the gaming operator’s F.I.T programme, which offers Financial Support, Invitational Matching and Training and Development.

“Sands China remains committed to working with local SME suppliers to help their businesses flourish alongside our company,” said Wilfred Wong, president of Sands China Ltd.

The local SMEs that participated in the one-day event said that awareness of green, sustainable products has increased compared to few years ago. With the aim of reducing the carbon footprint in the city, these companies are continually seeking different green products to offer to the gaming operator.

Since September 2018, Sands China has introduced Green Mondays to encourage employees to eat a more plant-based diet.
During Green Mondays, the back-of-house employee dining rooms offer plant-based meat alternatives Omnipork and Beyond Meat.
Diana Chan, Partnership Development supervisor of Green Monday, further explained that the movement encourages the public to go green at least once a week, switching their diet to plant-based meat.

“We think that it’s very important that we encourage people to take part in this movement so we can collectively create a huge impact in the environment,” said Chan. “Events like these allow us to get in touch with our different restaurant partners and be able to speak with them and [showcase] more of our products.”

The gaming operator’s invitational matching sessions provide a platform for SME suppliers to present and demonstrate their products and services to potential users and buyers at Sands China properties.

They also aim to enhance communication between vendors and users in a bid to improve the procurement success rate.

Alongside the invitational matching, the gaming operator also hosted its sixth cohort of local SME suppliers enrolled in its Sands Procurement Academy. The academy is a training initiative co-organized with the Macao Chamber of Commerce and the Macau Productivity and Technology Center.

Most of the participants in the latest group of 29 graduating suppliers had enrolled in the academy at its SME Open Day back in April. The aim of the program was to help them gain experience and capacity in working with large-scale corporations.