380_25 Supply of Catalogue Printing Services for ESPO

A framework for the supply of ESPO's catalogue printing requirements, both large and small catalogues. For delivery to the ESPO Distribution Centre, Leicester, or other nominated mailing house.

Lot 1 - Large and Small ESPO Catalogues

The framework agreement has the option to extend for up to a further 36 months. The total estimated value stated (which is captured here as a Value excluding VAT) includes the option period.

The minimum financial requirement for the purposes of the current tender exercise is:

As a minimum standard, there should be no material concerns as to the financial stability of the Tenderer indicating that the contract may not be satisfied. In order to determine this, a full financial analysis will be performed by ESPO (please see the ratios in the table at Appendix C of the Invitation to Tender document, please see below on how to access this).

The tests that will be applied and will be undertaken on the Tenderer's last 2 years accounts (or more), or if the Tenderer has not been trading for 2 years then the financial accounts for the period that that Tenderer has been trading will be used for the analysis:

• Analysis of gross profit margin* • Analysis of operating profit margin* • Change in turnover* • Net profit* • Net assets • No. of debtor's days • No. of creditor's days • Stock Turnover (as applicable - normally shown as a figure p.a.) • Liquidity (Acid Test - generally the higher the better, anything greater than 1 is good. In other words your liquid assets are greater than your liquid liabilities) • Gearing (Bank Leverage) • Review of company event history (e.g. change in directors, new mortgages, other documentation filed with Companies House

* Public Sector bodies and Third Sector organisations that are not obliged to report on profit or turnover, will not assessed on profitability or turnover.

In addition to the above tests, ESPO will use a Credit Reference Agency to provide information on Tenderers. Where the Credit Reference Agency assigns the Tenderer a score indicating higher than moderate financial risk, ESPO will give further consideration to the financial information and financial stability of the Tenderer. If ESPO has any reasonable cause for concern in relation to this information that cannot be reasonably resolved then this could give rise to the tender being rejected.

This contract will contain a contract monitoring clause which will require suppliers to ensure that there is no material detrimental change in their financial standing and/or their credit rating (as determined by use of a Credit Reference Agency).

To tender: (a) Go to https://www.eastmidstenders.org/; (b) Register (if not already registered on ProContract); (c) Search for tender opportunity '380_25' (via "View Opportunities" from the 'EastMidsTenders' Portal); (d) Express an interest; (e) Download the tender documents (from the ProContract Activity summary screen, once an Expression of interest has been completed).