Yorkshire snapping up Olympic business contracts, says Coe (VIDEO)

MORE than 100 Yorkshire businesses now have contracts to supply the Olympics as Lord Coe praised the region for its "extraordinary hunger" for the Games.

The chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games announced that 26 firms had direct contracts and a further 99 supply chain contracts have also been awarded.

They include Pickering-based firm "That Company Called If" which will supply Olympic bookmarks as souvenirs and Gilberdyke business Tru Group which will make the plastic name tags to identify trees in the Olympic village.

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The Games have a 9.3bn budget – 6bn of which is available for the development of the Olympic village and Olympic parks. However the Yorkshire Post revealed last year Yorkshire firms were lagging behind other regions in securing lucrative deals.

In October only 24 companies from the region had tied down contracts compared with 165 in the South-East, 46 in the South-West, 42 in the North-West, 40 in the West Midlands and 34 in the East Midlands.

But Lord Coe, speaking at a conference at Valley Parade stadium in Bradford yesterday, claimed Yorkshire was now much more in balance with the other regions.

"People were more switched on here right from the start and were immediately ready to try and secure teams for pre-games training camps.

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"It doesn't surprise me; sport is in the DNA of this community."

Lord Coe was visiting Bradford and Leeds to address business leaders about the opportunities still available to profit from the Games and to meet children using sports projects inspired by the Olympics. He launched Bradford Gold which will attempt to make the most of opportunities from the Games.

Lord Coe also visited Leeds University to give the closing address to the first national Inspire network event to take place outside London. The Inspire programme recognises exceptional projects inspired by the Olympics.