Catering Contract: West Lancashire Investment Centre

West Lancashire Borough Council is seeking to tender its contract for catering services at the West Lancashire Investment Centre.

The Investment Centre, located at junction 4 of the M58, just over 4 miles from the M6, comprises approximately 40 office suites, 8 conference/meeting rooms and an on–site business café, Café Wi-Fi, the subject of this tender exercise. The building currently houses around 300 people, the potential customer base being further increased by staff from neighbouring business units as the Centre boasts the only catering facility on Whitemoss Business Park.

The contract requires the successful contractor to deliver and manage a quality catering service. A more detailed description of the existing service can be downloaded from the Council's website.

The catering facility presently receives a subsidy of around £30k per year on a turnover of approximately £100k per year. In this tender opportunity the Council is seeking innovative ideas and working practices which will result in the removal of all, or most of, this subsidy. It should be noted that the Council pays the energy bills for this operation and that the successful contractor will pay no business rates and a rent of only one peppercorn for running the service. Furthermore, while the contractor will be responsible for cleaning the kitchen areas, the Council will assume responsibility for cleaning the customer seating area.

There are four full/part time members of staff employed on this contract which the Council considers would fall under the TUPE Regulations.

It is the Council’s intention to award a contract of up to 5 years.

To participate in this opportunity you must complete and submit the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) which can be found on the West Lancashire Borough Council website. The date and time for completion and return is 16 December 2015 at 4.00pm. The PQQ will then be scored and the full tender documents issued to up to 5 potential bidders.

Interested parties are encouraged to attend an open session being held at 10:30am on 30th November 2015 at West Lancashire Investment Centre, Whitemoss Business Park, Skelmersdale, Lancashire WN8 9TG. This session is intended to provide an opportunity to find out more about the current catering service and facilities in order to assist tenderers in formulating their proposed innovative ideas. Please register your interest in attending by emailing Rebecca.marsh@westlancs.gov.uk before 12 noon on Friday 27th November 2015.