Milk

Tender description

Hertfordshire County Council (the ‘Council’) is carrying out pre-procurement market engagement in relation to its requirement for the Supply and Delivery of School Milk in Hertfordshire. Therefore the Council has published this Prior Information Notice (PIN) to alert potentially interested organisations with appropriate expertise and / or relevant experience of this potential opportunity and the contracting authority's intentions. The Council is looking for interested organisations to complete and submit the Supplier Questionnaire. The purpose of the Council's pre-procurement market engagement process is to allow and enable potentially interested organisations with appropriate expertise and relevant experience to: - Outline and generate initial views/ideas around the outcomes, scope and the potential procurement strategy (i.e. with no commitment to themselves or the Council). - Engage with the Council to understand its challenges, intentions and desired Outcomes. - Inform the Council of current market developments. - Enable the Council to understand how the Current Requirements could be shaped and delivered. - Explain potential solutions available to the Council. The Council support the government's directive for all schools to provide access to school milk for pupils. The pupils at schools in Hertfordshire currently consume 4 500 000 one third of a pint size cartons of milk per annum across the nursery and primary schools. As part of the school food plan all maintained primary, infant and junior schools are legally required to make milk available for drinking by the pupils during school hours. School milk, on the present Contract, is currently supplied to 90 % of schools across Hertfordshire in 189ml cartons. The current Contract expires on the 31.8.2017 and the Council will be looking for a new Contract to start on the 1st September 2017. The annual spend is currently approximately 900 000 GBP pa. This spend includes a small value for staff room and kitchen milk which is also supplied on the current Contract. The challenges ahead include the possible effects of ‘Brexit’ on the EU subsidy received for infant and junior milk. The Council requires fresh milk delivered to schools within good time so that the milk can be distributed to pupils for morning break on each school day. Break time in schools is at 10:30. During 2016/2017 the Council have ordered 1 800 000 full fat cartons for the nursery pupils and 2 700 000 semi skimmed cartons for the infants and junior pupils. The Council will also require milk to be delivered to academy schools in the future. The Council will consider the feedback and responses received to help inform the Council's options and further decision making. For the avoidance of doubt, this stage of the project is not part of a formal procurement process and the Council is not committing, at this stage, to carrying out such a process. Participation or non-participation in the pre-procurement market engagement process shall not prevent any supplier participating in a potential future procurement, nor is it intended that any information supplied as part of the pre-procurement process shall place any supplier at an advantage in a potential procurement process. Participation in the pre-procurement market engagement procurement process will be at each supplier's own cost. No expense in responding to this process will be reimbursed by the Council. The Council will not enter into a contract based solely on the responses to this PIN and no information contained in the documents or in any communication made between the Council and any contractor in connection with its pre-procurement market engagement shall be relied upon as constituting a contract, agreement or representation that any contract shall be awarded. This pre-procurement market engagement process will comprise: — A PPME document and Supplier Questionnaire that can be found in ‘Synopsis’ — Submission of the Supplier Questionnaire (please see Appendix A of the pre-procurement market engagement documentation) following the instructions detailed in Section VI.2 below. Supplier Questionnaires must be received by 12 Noon on Monday 5.12.2016.