Tender

Central Region Schools Trust - Catering Contract

CENTRAL REGION SCHOOLS TRUST

UK4: Tender notice - Procurement Act 2023 - view information about notice types

Notice identifier: 2025/S 000-086488

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-05fe51

Published 30 December 2025, 3:43pm

Scope

Description

This is a catering tender for the Trust. It is seeking a single supplier to provide catering services to three secondary schools, and nine middle / primary schools, which includes some meal delivery services.

The Trust is seeking a supplier who will work alongside the schools to improve the health and nutrition of the students, through the provision of freshly prepared meals and snacks.

Total value (estimated)

£6,300,000 excluding VAT
£7,560,000 including VAT

Above the relevant threshold

Contract dates (estimated)

1 August 2026 to 31 July 2029
Possible extension to 31 July 2031
5 years

Description of possible extension:

Two x 12 month extensions will be available if agreed in writing by both parties

Options

The right to additional purchases while the contract is valid.

The Trust may grow over the life of this agreement. It intends to add any new school catering service into this central agreement, once any previous contractual obligation has been fulfilled.

It is also willing to offer a meal production service of other local schools, should they need such a service.

Main procurement category

Services

CPV classifications

55524000 - School catering services

Contract locations

UKG3 - West Midlands

Participation

Particular suitability

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)

Submission

Submission type

Requests to participate

Deadline for requests to participate

14 January 2026, 12:00pm

Submission address and any special instructions

To be complaint to the CRST Purchasing and Procurement Policy we will require bidders to submit all returns to two separate locations.

The formal submissions must be emailed to tenders@crst.org.uk with an additional copy of the document loaded into the Bidiful Portal.

https://bidiful-teamportal.app

Tenders may be submitted electronically

Yes

Languages that may be used for submission

English

Award decision date (estimated)

11 May 2026

Award criteria

This table contains award criteria for this lot
Name	Description	Type	Weighting
Quality	The Trust will assess the quality of the suppliers submission through the written submission. This will then be moderated by the information provided at the presentations and measured against the... information obtained through the supplied references.	Quality	80%
Price		Price	20%

Other information

Conflicts assessment prepared/revised

Yes

Procedure

Procedure type

Competitive flexible procedure

Competitive flexible procedure description

The procedure will consist of four distinct stages, allowing for an initial assessment of interested suppliers. Suppliers will be evaluated against the specific objectives of the new contract through the following stages:

• Selection Stage and Shortlisting

• Invitation to Tender (ITT) and Shortlisting for Presentation

• Presentation of Proposal to the Authority

• Reference Checking

The evaluation of the shortlisting process will be based on the information submitted by the bidding companies. A shortlist of suppliers will be compiled, with the 4 highest-scoring submissions invited to progress to the subsequent stage of the procurement process.

Only those companies that are selected and formally notified will be invited to submit a response during the ITT stage.

Documents

Associated tender documents

https://www.ace-advice.co.uk/current-projects

Access to the selection stage documentation will be provided upon application in writing to:

Ian Henderson

E: ian.henderson@ace-advice.co.uk

Contracting authority