Severn Academies Educational Trust - Tender for Catering Services

The successful supplier will be required to provide catering services across all seven of the (SAET) Severn Academies Educational Trust schools.

The geographical area of the schools is within a 5-10 mile radius of Kidderminster.

The Trust comprises of 2 secondary/sixth form schools and 5 primary schools.

Current student roll numbers are:

- primary KS1-KS2: 1 072 students,

- secondary Y7-Y11: 1 780 students,

- 6th form: 208 students.

The catering service provisions at all seven schools have not been market tested in recent years and to ensure best value principles are applied SAET have made a decision to tender the catering services.

The Trust has steadily expanded over the past 3 years and 1 of the objectives of market testing is to ensure that both the individual schools and the Trust benefit from economy of scale from appointing a single contractor to manage the catering service provision across the Trust.

Not all the schools have their own kitchen facilities and it is expected that the successful supplier will have the experience and ability to offer a delivered lunchtime service to these schools.

Estimated annual turnover value based on the current uptake is circa 640 000 GBP per annum including Universal Free School Meals, Free School Meals and cash sales. Current uptake levels vary across all sites and the Trust firmly believe that with improved choice and quality there is a real opportunity to increase levels of uptake.

For the avoidance of doubt TUPE Regulations including pension rights will apply to this contract where applicable.

The successful supplier will be expected to deliver a concise and detailed method of management reporting at the end of each month, thus updating the client on contract performance. It is imperative that an open book policy is offered to ensure that each School has total clarity on financial performance.

The Trust is seeking both innovation and the application of current food trends within the tender submissions and would expect as a result of this to be able to identify 'Best Value' and work in partnership with the chosen supplier going forward.

SAET's vision is to create a family of outstanding schools with clear purpose, direction and ethos.

The contract term will be for an initial period of three years and will commence on 1.8.2020. A further 2-year extension will be considered by the Trust depending on service deliverability of the successful supplier during the initial term.

As the Trust expands in the future there will be potential for the successful supplier to take on additional schools within the initial contract term as part of the ongoing requirement and growth of the Trust.

The basis of the contract will be fixed price during the contract term and if any improvements to financial surpluses are generated then the supplier shall share these on an agreed percentage return.

Note: this contract is being advertised as a single lot.

Further information is provided in the SQ Document.

Additional information: Interest in the selection 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 Selection Questionnaire and associated documents can be obtained at: https://litmuspartnership.co.uk/sq/saet/

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 13.12.2019 (12:00). Suppliers 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 Selection 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 Supplier'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 Contract 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.