Official UK procurement notice
Contract for Print and Digital Delivery Fulfilment Services
Authority: Gateshead Council (Local council)·Consortium: 2 public authorities
Sectors: Postal and telecommunications services (64) Delivery: North East (UKC)North West (UKD)Yorkshire & Humber (UKE)
Published estimate£1,500,000≈ £500k / year · £1,800,000 inc. VAT
Submissions closed 15 Sept 2025awarded 14 Oct 2025
Awarded to Opus Trust Marketing Limited Trading as Adare SEC Limited, Critiqom Ltd2 awards
Contract term 3 yrsends 12 Oct 2028 · up to 12 Oct 2030 with extensions · starts 13 Oct 2025
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionContract to provide a mailing fulfilment service for the printing and digital delivery of its Revenues, Benefits, Financial Assessments, Direct Payments, Housing and Exchequers documents.
CPV: Postal and telecommunications services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1AwardedRenewalPublished value£1,500,000
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
How bids were scored
Published sub-criteria (3)
- Quality Award Questions: 45%
- Value for Money: 50%
- Social Value: 5%
Published award criteria (3)
- Value for Money
- Quality Award Questions
- Social Value
What this means for your bid
- Price carries 50 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 5 points. This one is won on the number: sharpen the price before polishing the prose.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 16 Jun 2025, 14:03 BST
- Last source update
- 10 Dec 2025, 14:35 GMT
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 10 Oct 2025
- Authority reference
OPEN20251053- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-047641- Latest notice
- Contract details notice (UK7)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05494fFind a Tender
How it was run
Official noticeRun through: OPEN-UK
Access & registration note: Free
- Submission deadline
- 15 Sept 2025, 12:00 BST
- Clarification deadline
- 5 Sept 2025, 12:00 BST
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release
Timeline
16 Jun 2025 → 10 Dec 2025 · 10 dates- Planning notice published16 Jun 2025, 14:03 BST
- Market engagement27 Jun 2025, 23:59 BST
Gateshead Council is undertaking a market engagement exercise to establish the level of interest in this opportunity, to gather information and improve our understanding of the market.
Interested Contractors are invited to complete a market engagement questionnaire which can be accessed via the Open e-tendering system: www.open-uk.org/opportunities/overvi… ↗
- Tender notice published11 Aug 2025, 13:44 BST
- Clarification questions by5 Sept 2025, 12:00 BST
- Submission deadline15 Sept 2025, 12:00 BST
- Award decision expected by377 days ago10 Oct 2025, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts375 days ago13 Oct 2025, 00:00 BST
- Assessment summaries sent374 days ago14 Oct 2025, 00:00 BST
- Standstill ends364 days ago23 Oct 2025, 23:59 BST
- Latest notice published316 days ago10 Dec 2025, 14:35 GMT
Notice history
14 events · 7 releases on Find a Tender · since 16 Jun 2025- Preliminary market engagement notice published16 Jun 2025, 14:03 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Jun 2025, 10:54 BSTUK2
- Tender notice published11 Aug 2025, 13:44 BSTUK4
- Status changed to active11 Aug 2025, 13:44 BST
- Procurement method changed11 Aug 2025, 13:44 BST
- Deadline published: 15 Sept 2025, 12:00 BST11 Aug 2025, 13:44 BST
- Contract award notice published14 Oct 2025, 14:09 BSTUK6
- Status changed to complete14 Oct 2025, 14:09 BST
- Contract signature expected24 Oct 2025, 23:59 BSTscheduled
- Procurement termination notice published26 Nov 2025, 14:47 GMTUK12
- Contract award notice published26 Nov 2025, 15:01 GMTUK6
- Buyer details updated26 Nov 2025, 15:01 GMT
- Contract signature expected9 Dec 2025, 23:59 GMTscheduled
- Contract details notice published10 Dec 2025, 14:35 GMTUK7
Published amendments (1)
Link to opportunity registration updated
Routine re-releases (7)
- 2025-10: 1 release · 14 Oct 2025
- 2025-08: 1 release · 11 Aug 2025
- 2025-06: 2 releases · 16 Jun 2025, 17 Jun 2025
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecastAwards 2
Awarded value £3,000,0002 awards exc. VAT
Bids received 54 from SMEs
Contracts signed 2latest 10 Dec 2025
| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opus Trust Marketing Limited Trading as Adare SEC Limited7 Dec 2025 – 6 Dec 2028 · up to 6 Dec 2030Extensions: 2x 12-month optional extensions | £1,500,000 | 14 Oct 2025 | Awarded |
| Critiqom Ltd9 Dec 2025 – 6 Dec 2028 · up to 6 Dec 2030Extensions: 2x 12-month optional extensions | £1,500,000 | 14 Oct 2025 | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 2 · Critiqom Ltd
- Signed
- 10 Dec 2025
- Value
- £1,500,000
- Period
- 10 Dec 2025 – 6 Dec 2028 · up to 6 Dec 2030 with extensions
- Status
- active
- Extensions
- 2x 12-month optional extensions
3 agreed KPIs: 1 · 2 · 3
- 1, At annual billing, documents processed and passed for delivery within 7 calendar days of receiving the Council's data
- 2, For daily billing, documents processed and dispatched on the same day providing the Council's data was uploaded by 10am
- 3, Accuracy of automated merging process
Contract 1 · Opus Trust Marketing Limited Trading as Adare SEC Limited
- Signed
- date not published
- Value
- —
- Period
- … – 12 Oct 2028
- Status
- cancelled (26 Nov 2025), Incorrect supplier details used in Contract Award Notice due to multiple branches within the successful supplier organisation.
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5final-stage tenders | 4 | 0 | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
2 public bodies on the noticeBidders & participating suppliers
2 commercial parties on the notice- CRITIQOM LIMITEDAwarded supplier
- OPUS TRUST MARKETING LIMITEDAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (7)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract details notice Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Procurement termination notice Procurement termination notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender