Complete Seeding Line · UK public procurement notice

Active market research has been conducted over the past years visiting other nurseries in the UK and Europe speaking with other growers and machinery manufacturers. Evidence of this research can be provided upon request.

There are no other suppliers considered in this procurement that are able to deliver turn-key solutions like the BCC/Flier seeding line. BCC is the main contractor, working with Flier Systems to deliver highly specialized nursery equipment.

Having done extensive research into comparable tray-filling equipment, it has not been possible to locate another suitable supplier that provides a tray-filler that combines vibration and active compaction. Existing JAVO and Da Ros fillers have proven insufficient to fill our trays with peat free substrate, resulting in machinery downtime, increased maintenance and service costs, and significantly lower yield.

Vibration and active compaction has proven essential for effectively processing peat-free compost as demonstrated by the existing BCC tray-filler on site. Peat free growing is a switch that was made 3 years ago and placed us as leaders in the sector. The flow and filling of trays is vital to producing plugs that are suitable for automation equipment, therefore making this a crucial step to optimizing start-to-finish processes that formed part of the recent investments. When the plugs are not sufficiently held together, the new transplanting equipment struggles to effectively transplant miniplugs, which puts efficiency and cost-savings proposed through the investment at risk.

Aligning machinery with existing equipment would also be critical for maintenance and service. Adding new equipment from different machine suppliers increases complexity of maintenance schedules and costs and reduces operational agility. Many machine suppliers such as Viscon are based in mainland Europe, increasing difficulty of part imports. Whilst Flier/BCC are also based in mainland Europe, parts ordering and service provision is already in placed for existing equipment, reducing barriers for service and repair. Additionally parts are interchangeable between machinery, allowing for faster repairs and more efficient parts management.