Official UK procurement notice
GWR Supply of Water Coolers - Drinking Water at Stations, Offices and Depots
Authority: FIRST GREATER WESTERN LIMITED (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionFirst Greater Western Limited, trading as "Great Western Railway" (GWR), provides high speed, commuter, regional and branch line train services. We help over 100 million passengers reach their destinations every year - across South Wales, the West Country, the Cotswolds, and large parts of Southern England.
GWR operates a major rail network connecting London Paddington to Southwest England, the West Country, the Thames Valley, the Cotswolds, and South Wales. Based in Swindon, key routes run from London to major cities including Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Plymouth, and Penzance.
Pre Market Notice:
GWR is issuing this pre‑market engagement notice to gather market intelligence and identify suppliers capable of providing both bottled and plumbed‑in water cooler units/solutions across multiple depots in the Southwest region (across the full GWR network). The requirement includes the provision of regular and varied delivery schedules to support operational demands.
Suppliers should be able to offer flexible bottled water supply options, typically 19‑litre or 11‑litre bottles, with the capacity to deliver approximately 200 bottles per week to geographically dispersed sites.
Sustainability will form a key part of the service provision. This includes robust reuse and recycling processes for bottles, as well as a proactive approach to increasing the use of plumbed‑in units and reducing reliance on bottled‑water systems across the network.
The are currently around 333 water cooler units across the network, with 202 bottled units and 131 plumbed in units.
The supplier will be expected to operate a regular maintenance/service/sanitise programme across the network.
What next:
If you feel your organisation has the capacity and capability to deliver this requirement, please contact Ben.Boatman@gwr.com to express your interest.
Your details will be saved, and once this notice reaches its closing date of 19.06.26, GWR will review the responses and determine the appropriate next steps. This may include arranging individual supplier discussions or hosting a group engagement session with interested and capable suppliers.
CPV: Drink coolers · Drinking water
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How FIRST GREATER WESTERN LIMITED buys Outdoor sports equipment (CPV 3741), and who usually turns up
FIRST GREATER WESTERN LIMITED’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: Outdoor sports equipment (CPV 3741) →
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 105 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 bid44%
2–333%
4–622%
7+0%
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 estimate50% / 29%
Within ±2%29% / 57%
Above estimate21% / 14%
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 3741Published estimate£450k
i
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 68 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid15%
2–340%
4–632%
7+13%
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
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Utilities
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 13 May 2026, 10:47 BST
- Last source update
- 13 May 2026, 10:47 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-043768- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069755Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
13 May 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published169 days ago13 May 2026, 10:47 BST
- Market engagement131 days ago19 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
Preliminary Market Engagement Notice will expire 19.06.26
- Today29 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 153 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published13 May 2026, 10:47 BSTUK2
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 (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender