Shropshire Council to spend £500,000 on cheese
Companies are being offered a £500,000 contract by Shropshire Council – to supply it with cheddar cheese.
The local authority has released details of a contract up for tender to supply its catering company with as much as half a million pounds worth of cheese, both grated and in block form.
In its advertisement, Shropshire Council said the contract will be awarded based on quality, tasting and price, with price being given the greatest weight in deciding which supplier to give the contract to.
Quality will be the next decider, with taste given the least weighting in the criteria.
It added: "Cheddar cheese is required to be delivered on a regular basis to sites across Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, North Wales and the West Midlands in line with the requirements of the council and the specifications included in the tender.
"The contract will be appointed to one supplier who will be required to deliver their product into our distributor, currently Bidfood, for delivery out into our sites."
Janet Croft, Shropshire Council’s Shire Services manager, said: “The chosen supplier will supply grated and block cheese through our food distributor (Bidfood) to all catering contracts within Shire Services – 178 sites.
“The amount referred to, as included in the Official Journal of the European Union notice, is the total potential estimate worth over the lifetime of the contract.
"This has to be included on all OJEU notices and isn’t a guarantee of how much will be spent. This particular contract has a potential length of three years, which equates to an estimated value of approximately £166,000 per year.
“Last year Shire Services spent in the region of £5.1 million on provisions. Therefore the potential annual spend of this tender will account for approximately 3.25 per cent of Shire Services’ annual food costs.
“The tender has been advertised to comply with Shropshire Council’s contract rules on expenditure, and to ensure maximum value for money is obtained in purchasing these items.”
The deadline for tender submission is until June 8 at 12noon with the contract expected to run from September 1 2017 to August 31 2020.
Last week another tender document was revealed by Shropshire Council detailing £7.5 million plans to revamp the council's Shirehall base.
Under the refurbishment plans part of the building could be rented out to other organisations.
The council tender is seeking a consultant to produce a plan for the refurbishment work.
All invitations for tender are available to view on Shropshire Council's website.
