Official UK procurement notice
Postal and Print Services
Authority: Student Loans Company (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Student Loans Company (SLC) is seeking to procure a consolidated contract for Postal Services, Transactional Print, Overseas Mail and Return of Customer Documents withy future capability to support Hybrid Mail.
Prior to initiating the procurement, SLC wishes to establish the level of market interest to participating in the forth coming procurement process. Suitably qualified and experienced suppliers who may have an interest in this project are invited to complete the questionnaire that is available to registered suppliers via the Delta e tendering system for this Preliminary Market Engagement. The high level requirements are detailed within the online questionnaire. The purpose of the market engagement is to help assess the reaction of the market, to understand risks and future possibilities to ensure a future proofed procurement strategy and resulting contract. Please note that lengthy questionnaire responses are not necessary at this stage. However, SLC would welcome any pertinent information on your company's views on an approach to the provision of the required services. Any submission received in response to this exercise will not constitute any contractual agreement between the respondent and SLC. Nor does the receipt of a response automatically include the respondent in the procurement process.
A Tender Notice will be issued to the market which will provide details of how the relating procurement documentation can be accessed and timescales for submission of the said tender response. Interested parties shall bear their own costs of participation in this Market Engagement of whatever nature. SLC shall not be liable for the costs, expenses or losses howsoever arising (including, without limitation, any loss of profit or other economic loss incurred), regardless of the outcome of the Market Engagement. The next stage in the process will be considered once this exercise has been completed.
Completed Questionnaires can be submitted at any point as an attachment via the message centre but must be no later than 12.00 on Thursday 8th April.
Michael Mullin | Commercial Manager
CPV: Post and courier services · Postal services · Postal services related to letters · Postal services related to parcels
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Student Loans Company buys Postal services (CPV 6411), and who usually turns up
Student Loans Company’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Postal services (CPV 6411) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside the delivery region.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
No decision dates published to compare.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
The buyer’s share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 6411Published estimate£9.1m
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 64 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid19%
2–344%
4–620%
7+17%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
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Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- 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
- 24 Mar 2026, 16:07 GMT
- Last source update
- 24 Mar 2026, 16:07 GMT
- Authority reference
2025-TR-0131- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-026977- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067320Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
24 Mar 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published212 days ago24 Mar 2026, 16:07 GMT
- Market engagement197 days ago8 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
Any interested parties are requested to complete a Questionnaire provided by SLC to enable us to go to market with a viable solution.
A tenderbox has been created in the Delta e-sourcing platform and parties are requested to complete the Questionnaire and attach to a message via the message centre.
The contract reference is1020210220. The access code is XE5W959U6Z.
Your organisation must be registered at delta-esourcing.com ↗ to participate.
- Tender notice expected185 days ago20 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts22 days ago1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published24 Mar 2026, 16:07 GMTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender