South Staffordshire Council - Catering Services

The Council Offices at Codsall are the administrative headquarters of South Staffordshire Council, who strive to make South Staffordshire a safer and healthier place to live, work and visit with prosperous villages, thriving communities and a high quality environment.

The Catering facility provides a service for staff, members, visitors and the public, but as the current period of tenure is reaching its conclusion, it is now time to review the existing operation with a view to further developing its potential, whilst maintaining a high quality service which is tailored to optimise customer appeal, is consistent and financially viable.

The key objective of this tender is to further develop and improve the service offering, to ensure that the catering service represents value for money and considers the Council’s Sustainable and Ethical Procurement Policy, whilst achieving a high quality service.

With this in mind, we are seeking proposals from potential service partners who will work with the Council, in developing the service and who will bring their own specific expertise and flair to achieving this goal.

The tender project is seeking to appoint a Contractor whose initiative and innovation will be welcomed for the provision of service within the existing facilities for the approximately 350 employees working on site, plus elected members, Council visitors and the general public, with a focus on exciting new food concepts to satisfy a wide range of tastes and dietary requirements. The Council would wish the successful contractor to review the current services offered and make recommendations accordingly.

The contract being tendered is for three years in duration from 1 January 2016 until 31 December 2018 and will operate as a Guaranteed Performance Contract, with the successful Contractor offering the Council a guaranteed return / cost per annum for the provision of catering services. Sovereignty of the cash tariff is to remain with South Staffordshire Council for the duration of this contract.

The contract offered covers the scope for the provision of all catering services within the Offices, which currently includes an all-day dining and café service, all hospitality and free issue requirements. Hospitality will be charged based on consumption and at net food cost.

Whilst the Council prioritises value for money as a key objective of the Competitive Tender Process, they are not obliged to accept the lowest price.

The value of the current contract is approximately £102,500 for 2014/15.

South Staffordshire Council expects the successful contractor to enable the continued development of catering, through the provision of an innovative, healthy food service, with fresh, seasonal, locally sourced ingredients being prepared on-site.

Additional information: Interest in the pre-qualification process should be expressed via email only to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk, clearly stating within this email which contract / notice you are referring to. Please also provide, as a minimum, a contact name, full company postal address and telephone number.

The pre-qualification questionnaire and associated documents can be obtained at: http://www.litmuspartnership.co.uk/project/south_staffordshire_council

The closing date for receipt of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire is 2.10.2015 (12:00). Tenderers are required to ensure that documents are obtained and returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk, by the above closing date and time.

Documents in respect of economic / financial standing (where indicated in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) shall be returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk, by the above closing date and time.

It will be the Tenderer’s responsibility to obtain any necessary documents in order to submit a response by the closing date and time.

The contracting authority reserves the right not to award any or part of the contract which is the subject of this OJEU notice and reserves the right to terminate the procurement process at any time.

The contracting authority will not be liable for any costs incurred by those expressing an interest in tendering for this contract opportunity.

The contracting authority will consider variant bids, evaluating them (so far as the variant or the evaluation of the variant is in the opinion of the contracting authority practicable) on the same basis as a conforming bid, but shall not be obliged to accept any such bid in preference to a conforming bid even if the variant bid scores more highly. No variant will be considered unless the bidder simultaneously submits a conforming bid.