Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 25 Mar 2026, 13:46 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

T2736 Supply and delivery of Uniforms, Footwear and PPE - Pre-Market-Engagement

Authority: Belfast City Council (Local council)

GoodsAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£1,500,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 30 Apr 2030 · up to 30 Apr 2032 with extensions · starts 3 May 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Belfast City Council is undertaking a Pre‑Market Engagement (PME) exercise in advance of a planned procurement for the supply and delivery of workwear, branded uniforms, footwear, gloves, and personal protective equipment (PPE). The forthcoming contract is expected to cover a wide range of operational garments and safety items used across Council services, including Parks, Waste Collection, City Regeneration, Facilities Management, and other frontline operational teams.

The Council intends to maintain the existing three‑lot structure covering:

Lot 1 – Branded uniforms and workwear

Lot 2 – Footwear and gloves

Lot 3 – Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

As part of this PME, the Council is seeking information on market capacity, sustainable and ethical product options, supply‑chain resilience and any innovations or circular solutions that may inform the final specification.

Belfast City Council invites Suppliers to participate in this PME by emailing cps@belfastcity.gov.uk to request a copy of the PME questionnaire. Completed questionnaires must be returned by the deadline stated in the document. This PME is for information‑gathering only.

CPV: Footwear · Gloves · Occupational clothing, special workwear and accessories · Protective and safety clothing · Protective footwear

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 3 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 3 May 2027 – 30 Apr 2030 (3 yrs) · up to 30 Apr 2032 with extensions
Delivery: Northern IrelandEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Belfast City Council buys Occupational clothing, special workwear and accessories (CPV 1810), and who usually turns up

Belfast City Council’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: Occupational clothing, special workwear and accessories (CPV 1810) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerBelfast City Council · all categories
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 65 of 76 known-size awards · market: CPV 1810 · Northern Ireland, n=9
86%89%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 83 of 97 known-location awards · market: CPV 1810 · UK-wide, n=27
86%44%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 33 decided notices · market: CPV 1810 · UK-wide, n=8
44 days63 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 44 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 27 of 72 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 1810 · UK-wide, n=45
38%38%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer99 lots with bid counts · all categories
42% had one bid
The market10 lots with bid counts · CPV 1810 · Northern Ireland
0% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid42% / 0%
Buyer: 42 of 99 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 10 lots with published bid counts.
2–332% / 20%
Buyer: 32 of 99 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 10 lots with published bid counts.
4–620% / 0%
Buyer: 20 of 99 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 10 lots with published bid counts.
7+5% / 80%
Buyer: 5 of 99 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 10 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer54 lots with estimate and award · all categories
15% below estimate
The market15 lots with estimate and award · CPV 1810 · UK-wide
27% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate15% / 27%
Buyer: 8 of 54 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 4 of 15 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%69% / 47%
Buyer: 37 of 54 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 7 of 15 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate17% / 27%
Buyer: 9 of 54 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 4 of 15 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 351136 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£1.5m

This lot is listed as CPV 3511. The table above uses the notice category.

Expected competition
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 21 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet19% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 21 similar lots
1 bid19%
4 of 21 similar past lots received 1 bid (19%).
2–343%
9 of 21 similar past lots received 2–3 (43%).
4–624%
5 of 21 similar past lots received 4–6 (24%).
7+14%
3 of 21 similar past lots received 7+ (14%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 2 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £1.5m, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueWhy listed
Tailored Image LtdEarlier contractT2185 - Supply and delivery of Workwear and PPEnotice published Aug 2022Lot 1 – the supply and delivery of branded uniforms and workwear£650kMatched as the earlier contract
Arco LimitedEarlier contractT2185 - Supply and delivery of Workwear and PPEnotice published Aug 2022Lot 2 - supply and delivery of footwear and gloves£600kMatched as the earlier contract
Antrim Supplies (Workwear) LtdEarlier contractT2185 - Supply and delivery of Workwear and PPEnotice published Aug 2022Lot 3 - sSupply and delivery of PPE£150kMatched 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.

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
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
25 Mar 2026, 13:46 GMT
Last source update
25 Mar 2026, 13:46 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-027355
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
FootwearGlovesOccupational clothing, special workwear and accessoriesProtective and safety clothingProtective footwear
Delivery area
Northern Ireland (UKN)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0673e7 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

25 Mar 2026 → 3 May 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published218 days ago
    25 Mar 2026, 13:46 GMT
  2. Market engagement187 days ago
    24 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST

    This PME is being delivered through a questionnaire‑based process. Belfast City Council invites Suppliers to participate in this PME by emailing cps@belfastcity.gov.uk to request a copy of the PME questionnaire. Completed questionnaires must be returned by the deadline stated in the document. This PME is for information‑gathering only.

  3. Today
    29 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 185 days
    3 May 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    25 Mar 2026, 13:46 GMT
    UK2

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

Belfast City Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PQXY-5321-CGZM 9-21 Adelaide Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT2 8DJContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure