Cruise Services and Berthing Support Staff - Portsmouth International Port - Soft Marketing Testing

Portsmouth City Council (the 'Council') is seeking to engage in pre-procurement soft market testing discussions with suitably qualified and experienced contractors in respect of a forthcoming contracting opportunity concerning the provision of cruise services and berthing support staff at Portsmouth International Port (the 'Port'). The Port is wholly owned by the Council and is the UK's largest municipal port.

The Council currently has separate contracts in place for cruise services and berthing support staff at Portsmouth International Port, and these contracts are due to end in May 2025.

The Council requires a contractor to continue to carry out these services once the current contracts end. The contractor needs to be able to operate on a dynamic basis as the cruise and berthing programmes can be subject to change at short notice due to factors like the weather. Furthermore, the Council will not be able to provide a binding guarantee per annum value for either of the contracts.

The Council envisages entering into a 4-year contract, extendable by a further 6 years in increments to be agreed. The full scope of services will formally commence on the go live date of 1st June 2025.

The Council is considering undertaking a joint procurement process for these contracts, which will result in the letting of separate contracts for each of the service provision. The Council is considering a lotting strategy where Lot 1 is for the provision of cruise service, Lot 2 is for the provision of berthing support staff services and Lot 3 is the for the provision of cruise and berthing support staff services combined. Lot 3 will result in 2 separate contracts, a concession contract for cruise services and a service contract for berthing support staff.

The Council would like to engage in 1.1 meetings with suitably qualified and experienced contractors who have sufficient current experience of working within a maritime and shipping environment ideally this will include the provision of stevedoring services in a passenger environment, to gain feedback on several elements of the proposed procurement and contract strategy. Any information a contractor shares could be used to assist the Council in drafting the final tender documentation, including the specification. The Council ideally wishes to undertake meetings in person at the Terminal Building at Portsmouth International Port, however the Council can also undertake the meetings remotely via Teams if this is preferred by particular contractors. The Council has capacity to undertake a maximum of 7, 1 hour 1-1 meetings at the following dates and times:

14th August 2024 - 09:30 hours - 10:30 hours 14th August 2024 - 11:00 hours - 12:00 hours 15th August 2024 - 09:30 hours - 10:30 hours 15th August 2024 - 11:00 hours - 12:00 hours 16th August 2024 - 13:00 hours - 14:00 hours 16th August 2024 - 14:30 hours - 15:30 hours

As capacity is limited mee...

Additional information: Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No