Havering College of Further and Higher Education - Catering Services

The successful tenderer will be required to provide catering services at Havering College of Further & Higher Education across all three campuses.

Havering College is a large College to the east of London with two additional campuses close by. It is expected that the successful contractor will be able to establish and maintain minimum standards for the catering operation which will offer customers a parity of service and tariffs within each campus.

The contract covers the scope for the provision of all catering and vending services within the College which also includes all hospitality and free issue requirements.

The contract being offered will commence on 1 August 2016 on a 3 + 1 + 1 year basis.

The contract being offered within this tender will be based on a guaranteed performance basis with all free issue requirements and hospitality being recharged on consumption at “net” food cost only.

It is expected that the contract will run on a profit return or zero cost and VAT being covered within the scope of this, ensuring that there is no cost or subsidy associated with the contract.

The College are looking for the successful tenderer to provide inward capital investment to refresh and rejuvenate the catering facilities, thus improving on the current provision and ensuring that innovation, a retail focus and customer engagement are focused on moving into this contract term. Consideration should also be given to the provision of a cashless catering system that has the ability to provide the management of free college meals.

The quality and range of food provision will be critical and your organisation must be flexible enough to source bakery, meat, fruit and vegetables and dairy products through local suppliers based no more than 20 miles from the College. It is expected that menus will feature and utilise products in season when available.

Customer engagement will be fundamental to the continuous improvement in the service provision and within your tender response your methodology to this will need to be detailed along with examples of where this has been undertaken within similar contracts recently.

The successful contractor should have similar operations within the area, thus ensuring that the Operational Management Team responsible for the contract are available for regular unplanned visits and support for the contract, and that coverage for any planned or unplanned leave from within the establishment staffing structure can be easily provided.

The successful contractor must ensure that all staff employed within this contract have completed the appropriate police checks, i.e. enhanced DBS. The process must be commenced, upon their engagement in the service and checks must be repeated every three years. The College should then be informed of Disclosure Numbers and associated names, as soon as they become available.

Additional information: Interest in the pre-qualification process should be expressed via email only to [email protected], clearly stating within this email which contract / notice you are referring to. Please also provide, as a minimum, a contact name, full company postal address and telephone number.

The pre-qualification questionnaire and associated documents can be obtained at: http://www.litmuspartnership.co.uk/project/havering_college_of_further__higher_education

The closing date for receipt of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire is 11.9.2015 (12:00). Tenderers are required to ensure that documents are obtained and returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to [email protected], by the above closing date and time.

Documents in respect of economic / financial standing (where indicated in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) shall be returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to [email protected], by the above closing date and time.

It will be the Tenderer's responsibility to obtain any necessary documents in order to submit a response by the closing date and time.

The contracting authority reserves the right not to award any or part of the contract which is the subject of this OJEU notice and reserves the right to terminate the procurement process at any time.

The contracting authority will not be liable for any costs incurred by those expressing an interest in tendering for this contract opportunity.

The contracting authority will consider variant bids, evaluating them (so far as the variant or the evaluation of the variant is in the opinion of the contracting authority practicable) on the same basis as a conforming bid, but shall not be obliged to accept any such bid in preference to a conforming bid even if the variant bid scores more highly. No variant will be considered unless the bidder simultaneously submits a conforming bid.