Official UK procurement notice
PRE-MARKET ENGAGEMENT QUESTIONNAIRE (PME) for Ambient and Chilled Grocery Products for Education Authority NI
Authority: the Education Authority (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) wishes to engage with the market to seek their views on establishing a robust, value for money contract for the provision of Ambient and Chilled Grocery Products and Fresh Muffins. Any information gathered through this market consultation exercise will inform internal business planning and any possible subsequent procurement process and will NOT be appraised in any future tender evaluation exercise. Please note that participation or non-participation in this preliminary market consultation exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any potential procurement process, nor is it intended that any information supplied shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any forthcoming procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of a formal procurement process. Suppliers who wish to participate in the market engagement exercise should complete the pre-market engagement questionnaire. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from CfT documents. The Questionnaire must be completed no later than 3pm on the closing date detailed in the PME Questionnaire document. There are no formal tender documents to be completed other than the questionnaire.
CPV: Coffee, tea and related products · Condiments and seasonings · Food, beverages, tobacco and related products · Miscellaneous food products · Pasta products · Rusks and biscuits; preserved pastry goods and cakes · Sugar and related products
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How the Education Authority buys Rusks and biscuits; preserved pastry goods and cakes (CPV 1582), and who usually turns up
the Education Authority’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: Rusks and biscuits; preserved pastry goods and cakes (CPV 1582) →
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. The market figure counts awards delivered in Northern Ireland (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in 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 31 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.
The market share is a minimum: 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 bid33% / 32%
2–367% / 43%
4–60% / 24%
7+0% / 1%
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 estimate0% / 25%
Within ±2%100% / 58%
Above estimate0% / 17%
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 15Published estimate£68m
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 15. The comparison uses that group.
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 75 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid32%
2–343%
4–624%
7+1%
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.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henderson Foodservice LimitedLive contract | Fresh Poultry Products for Education Authority NIruns to Mar 2027 | — | £18m | Matched as the earlier contract |
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
- 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
- 12 Oct 2026, 10:52 BST
- Last source update
- 12 Oct 2026, 10:52 BST
- Authority reference
CAT-26-001- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095958- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078560Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
12 Oct 2026 → 1 Jul 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published17 days ago12 Oct 2026, 10:52 BST
- Today29 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 35h30 Oct 2026, 23:59 GMT
Pre-Market Engagement Questionnaire (PME) for the provision of Ambient and Chilled Grocery Products for the Education Authority and NI Educational Bodies.
Interested Suppliers are asked to complete and return the questionnaire available via the eTendersNI messaging portal no later than 3pm on 30 October 2026.
- Tender notice expectedin 67 days4 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 244 days1 Jul 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published12 Oct 2026, 10:52 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