Road salt

Tender description

Commercial Services is 1 of the largest trading organisations of its kind in Europe with a turnover in excess of 600 000 000 GBP and employing over 600 people from its base in Kent. Tracing its roots back to 1902, as an education stores department for Kent County Council, Commercial Services has subsequently grown organically to supply an ever-increasing range of best value goods and services to other publicly funded organisations. These include local government, education establishments, the care sector and the emergency services. KCS is a trading unit of Commercial Services and provides a purchasing, warehousing and distribution service to a wide ranging customer base within local government and associated public bodies in Kent, neighbouring counties and across the UK. Kent County Council (the Council) is the largest local authority in England covering an area of 3 500 square kilometres. It has an annual expenditure of circa 1 000 000 000 GBP on goods and services and a population of 1 500 000. The Council provides a wide range of personal and strategic services on behalf of its residents, operating in partnership with 12 district councils and 289 parish/town councils. The Central Buying Consortium (CBC) is a group of County, Borough and City Councils. The purpose of which is to improve the effectiveness, by coordination, of local authority purchasing with the object of effecting savings in public expenditure for the benefit of its members. CBC procures approximately 750 000 000 GBP goods and services per annum. Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation provides a professional procurement service that allows public sector customers to enjoy cost and efficiency savings through substantial bulk buying power and the convenience of ‘1 stop shop’. It's customer base extends across more than 100 local authority areas encompassing schools, colleges and universities in addition to all major local government departments including Social Services, Catering, Transport, Highways, Building, Energy, Admin and Waste Management as well as the Emergency Services. In accordance with best procurement practice, EU and UK Procurement Directives and Regulations, KCS has created a Framework Agreement (the Agreement) for the supply and delivery of Salt and Play Sand. The procurement process adopted by the Contracting Authority is based upon the ‘Open’ Procedure, as detailed in the ‘Public Contract Regulations 2015’.