Official UK procurement notice
Docking Station Cafe · UK public procurement notice
Authority: University of Kent (Education)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe University of Kent is seeking expressions of interest from café operators as part of a pre-market engagement exercise for the cafe within Docking Station, a landmark creative and innovation hub opening in Medway in early 2027. Docking Station is a publicly accessible centre for digital creativity, research, learning and community engagement, operated by the University's Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (iCCi). The facility will bring together students, academics, creative businesses, entrepreneurs, local residents and visitors within a unique riverside destination on the Historic Dockyard estate. The building will feature state-of-the-art digital production facilities including LED volume technology, motion capture, volumetric capture and photogrammetry studios, alongside flexible teaching spaces, co-working facilities, offices, exhibition areas and a programme of public events. Designed as a bridge between academia, industry and the wider community, Docking Station will become a hub of activity throughout the year. A high-quality café offer is central to the visitor experience and the success of the building. We are therefore seeking feedback from experienced operators to help shape the future procurement opportunity. Through this pre-market engagement exercise, we are interested in hearing from potential operators on:
- Appetite for operating a café within Docking Station.
- Preferred operating models and partnership approaches.
- Customer offer, including food, beverage and community-focused provision.
- Expectations around fit-out, equipment and landlord support.
- Approaches to sustainability, accessibility and social value.
- Opportunities to support events, exhibitions and community programmes.
- Key commercial considerations and risks that should inform the tender process. This engagement is intended to inform the development of the future procurement and does not constitute a commitment to tender or award a contract. Participation or non-participation in this exercise will not prevent any supplier from participating in any future procurement process. It is not intended that information provided by any supplier will place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any subsequent procurement. Responses received as part of this preliminary market engagement will not be scored or evaluated.
CPV: Beverage-serving services · Cafeteria services · Restaurant and food-serving services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How University of Kent buys Cafeteria services (CPV 5533), and who usually turns up
University of Kent’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Cafeteria services (CPV 5533) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 27 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid47% / 15%
2–324% / 26%
4–612% / 53%
7+18% / 6%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate54% / 10%
Within ±2%23% / 30%
Above estimate23% / 60%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 55Published estimate£90k
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 55. The comparison uses that group.
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 95 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid15%
2–326%
4–653%
7+6%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 27 Oct 2026, 15:34 GMT
- Last source update
- 27 Oct 2026, 16:02 GMT
- Authority reference
MH25_021- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-101712- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-079189Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
27 Oct 2026 → 1 Feb 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published1h ago27 Oct 2026, 15:34 GMT
- Today27 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 17 days13 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
Please register to EU Supply using the link below to download the Preliminary Market Engagement feedback document. uk.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/rwlentrance_… ↗
- Tender notice expectedin 31 days27 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 96 days1 Feb 2027
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 27 Oct 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published27 Oct 2026, 15:34 GMTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published27 Oct 2026, 16:02 GMTUK2
Published amendments (1)
Engagement deadline amended from 09/11/26 to 13/11/26
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender