Despite travelling across the globe, Bradford businessman Jeff Spolnik is still delighted to get back to his home city.

And he is not only investing money in a new northern factory and offices for his firm Industrial Cooling Systems, he has always favoured Bradford firms, when possible, whenever tender bids have been submitted for contracts with the company.

He said: "I think there are a lot of Bradford companies which give good value for money and all-round satisfaction. When we were looking at replacement roofing for the new Manchester Road building, we had tenders from firms in Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds and Lancaster.

"The Bradford man was not only the cheapest but offered good local references and was supplying local labour.

"There is another company which, until recently, had offices in Bradford but is now a Leeds firm. But because it employs a number of people from Bradford, we favour them when it comes to contracts."

He maintains that firms in the city could source almost everything they need from other companies in the district. His self-stimulated efforts fit in with the work of the Employment Links Team set up by Bradford Council and Bradford & District Training & Enterprise Council.

The team is helping to bring large and small firms together in the city and has set up the Buy Bradford website to do just that.

Firms can tap into www.buy-bradford.org.uk to see a range of opportunities to tender for contracts, information on European trading opportunities, member bulletin board and news of discounted training schemes, goods and services.

Mr Spolnik, 43, who lives in Harden, also believes the city is a good place for inward investment as land and property prices are lower in the city than in other places - something which he believes should attract outside businesses to the place.

Like many Bradfordians, he finds himself criticising the place when he is with fellow Bradford people. "But if anybody outside the area starts pulling it apart, then I will defend it to the hilt," he added.

ICS, which counts Rolls Royce, British Aerospace and BP International among its customers, started in the loft of Mr Spolnik's home and has now become a UK-wide company with a southern office in New Milton, Hampshire, a Midlands office in Aston, a manufacturing base in Derbyshire and a northern office currently based at Mitre Court, Cutler Heights Lane.

The firm, which employs 120 workers, expects to be up and running in the Manchester Road site, which will be a £1 million investment in total, by the end of the year.

He added: "A great deal of our success comes down to the people involved in the company. The calibre of our workers from Bradford and the surrounding area is nothing short of brilliant."

James Murgatroyd, who heads up the Employment Links Team, said more than 600 firms had their details on its website giving details of the products and services they offered.

He said: "The next few months will see additional features added to the site to cover news stories about member companies, tenders and offers to members."

The Employment Link Team has also set up the Bradford Construction Partnership which is aimed at bringing together local sub-contractors and construction workers with the main contractors working on the Vicar Lane leisure development and the Filey Street site.

"While it is still in its infancy, the Partnership is aiming to create a single point of contact to link the needs of the main contractors to the expertise and potential of local people, firms and regeneration schemes," he added.

The site of the new call centre being built by the Yorkshire Building Society is one of the strategic sites in the city that the Employment Link Team was created to assist.

Mr Murgatroyd said the Employment Link Team worked with Bradford Council's Corporate Investment Team to attract the YBS to the site -- a development which will create 300 jobs.