Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 9 Nov 2026, 10:39 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Pre Market Engagement Exercise relating to the procurement of Supply of confectionery products for vending machines

Authority: Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council (Local council)

GoodsAbove threshold
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 1 Apr 2030 · up to 1 Apr 2032 with extensions · starts 1 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

***Pre Market Engagement Only.*** Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council is currently preparing to initiate a procurement process to award a tender for the procurement of Supply of confectionery products for vending machines. LCCC wishes to engage with the market at this stage to establish the level of market interest and to gather information that will be beneficial in the tendering process. Suppliers who wish to participate in the market engagement exercise should complete the pre-market engagement questionnaire. The questionnaire can be downloaded from the CfT Documents section. The questionnaire must be completed and submitted no later than the date and time specified on eTendersNI. There are no formal tender documents to be completed other than the questionnaire. Any information gathered will NOT be considered in any future tender evaluation exercise. Participation or non-participation in this pre-procurement market engagement shall not prevent any supplier/provider from participating in a potential procurement process nor is it intended that any information supplied shall place any supplier/ provider at an advantage in any forthcoming procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, this stage of the project is not part of a formal procurement process and there is no commitment, at this stage to carrying out such a process.

CPV: Chocolate and sugar confectionery · Vending machines · Vending-machine ingredients

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 3 yrs
Contract period: 1 Apr 2027 – 1 Apr 2030 (3 yrs) · up to 1 Apr 2032 with extensions
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council buys Cocoa; chocolate and sugar confectionery (CPV 1584), and who usually turns up

Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Cocoa; chocolate and sugar confectionery (CPV 1584) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerLisburn & Castlereagh City Council · all categories
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Buyer: 39 of 51 known-size awards · market: CPV 1584 · UK-wide, n=5
76%20%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.

Buyer: 40 of 46 known-location awards · market: CPV 1584 · UK-wide, n=6
87%50%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i
Buyer: 20 decided notices · market: division 15 · Northern Ireland, n=17
41 days35 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 41 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Buyer: at least 12 of 42 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 15 · Northern Ireland, n=21
29%38%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i
This buyer35 lots with bid counts · all categories
31% had one bid
The market5 lots with bid counts · CPV 1584 · UK-wide
0% had one bid
% of lots with a published bid count: this buyer (35) / the market (5) · select a colour for counts
1 bid31% / 0%
Buyer: 11 of 35 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
2–340% / 20%
Buyer: 14 of 35 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
4–620% / 40%
Buyer: 7 of 35 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
7+9% / 40%
Buyer: 3 of 35 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 5 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i
This buyer18 lots with estimate and award · all categories
17% below estimate
The market5 lots with estimate and award · CPV 1584 · UK-wide
20% below estimate
% of lots with an estimate and award: this buyer (18) / the market (5) · select a colour for counts
Below estimate17% / 20%
Buyer: 3 of 18 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 1 of 5 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%72% / 80%
Buyer: 13 of 18 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 4 of 5 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate11% / 0%
Buyer: 2 of 18 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 5 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 158936 monthsEstimate not published

This lot is listed as CPV 1589. The table above uses the notice category.

Expected competition
i

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 75 past lots.

—No model forecast yet32% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 75 similar lots
1 bid32%
24 of 75 similar past lots received 1 bid (32%).
2–343%
32 of 75 similar past lots received 2–3 (43%).
4–624%
18 of 75 similar past lots received 4–6 (24%).
7+1%
1 of 75 similar past lots received 7+ (1%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Estimates, labelled. The price range, possible competitors and earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards, not published facts, win chances or price advice. The buyer’s own record and the wider market are shown apart, never mixed.
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender and Contracts Finder), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0, updated through the day and rebuilt nightly. Not every figure uses both feeds, and each one shows how many records it rests on: see the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Coming up in this sector

Contracts ending within 12 months · Retender Radar, sector filter set

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Goods
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
9 Nov 2026, 10:39 GMT
Last source update
9 Nov 2026, 10:39 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-106063
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Chocolate and sugar confectioneryVending machinesVending-machine ingredients
Delivery area
Northern Ireland (UKN0E)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07b739 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

9 Nov 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published5 days ago
    9 Nov 2026, 10:39 GMT
  2. Today
    14 Nov 2026
  3. Market engagementin 16 days
    30 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT

    PME questionnaire to be uploaded via the Etenders Portal

  4. Contract startsin 137 days
    1 Apr 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    9 Nov 2026, 10:39 GMT
    UK2

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

Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PHHT-5875-NTNM Lagan Valley Island, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, BT27 4RLContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure