Official UK procurement notice
Pre-Market Engagement: Supply, Installation and Maintenance of Hot Water Boilers and Chilled/Ambient Water Dispensers
Authority: Bedford College (Education)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionPreliminary Market Engagement (PME): Supply, Installation and Maintenance of Hot Water Boilers and Chilled/Ambient Drinking Water Dispensers
The Bedford College Group is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to gain a better understanding of the current market and available solutions relating to the provision of hot water boilers and chilled/ambient drinking water dispensers across its estate.
The purpose of this engagement is to obtain insight from suppliers regarding the supply, installation, commissioning, maintenance and support of drinking water and hot water dispensing equipment, together with associated servicing, filtration, hygiene management, lifecycle maintenance and customer support arrangements. The College is seeking to understand current market capabilities, emerging technologies, sustainable solutions, innovative delivery models and best practice approaches that may assist in shaping future requirements.
Through this engagement, the College wishes to explore the feasibility of a single supplier providing a comprehensive end-to-end service across multiple sites, including equipment provision, installation, planned preventative maintenance, reactive repairs, servicing and ongoing contract support. Suppliers are invited to provide feedback on equipment options, commercial models, maintenance approaches, implementation considerations, risk factors and any opportunities to improve value for money and service delivery.
Information gathered through this exercise will be used to inform the College's understanding of the marketplace, support the development of its future requirements and procurement strategy, and assist in determining the most appropriate approach for any potential future procurement.
This Preliminary Market Engagement is being undertaken solely for market research and information-gathering purposes. It does not constitute a call for competition, invitation to tender, request for quotation, or any commitment by The Bedford College Group to commence a procurement process or award a contract. Participation in this exercise will not confer any advantage or disadvantage in relation to any future procurement activity.
Interested organisations are invited to review the accompanying Preliminary Market Engagement documentation and complete the questionnaire via the MultiQuote portal.
CPV: Heating equipment · Repair and maintenance services · Water coolers
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Bedford College buys Cooling towers (CPV 3114), and who usually turns up
Bedford College’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: Cooling towers (CPV 3114) →
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.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 12 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
The market 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.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid57% / 19%
2–30% / 39%
4–629% / 29%
7+14% / 13%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate20% / 44%
Within ±2%0% / 31%
Above estimate80% / 25%
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 3971No real estimate
This lot is listed as CPV 3971. The table above uses the notice category.
i
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 33 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid12%
2–315%
4–661%
7+12%
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.
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.
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
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- 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
- 10 Aug 2026, 11:36 BST
- Last source update
- 10 Aug 2026, 11:36 BST
- Authority reference
CA18308- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-075633- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06dfe4Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
10 Aug 2026 → 1 Mar 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published76 days ago10 Aug 2026, 11:36 BST
- Market engagement62 days ago24 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
Bedford College is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement to better understand the market, supplier capabilities, available solutions and indicative pricing for the supply, installation and maintenance of hot water boilers and chilled/ambient water dispensers across its estate.
Interested organisations are invited to review the attached PME document and complete the PME Questionnaire via the MultiQuote portal.
Clarification questions should be submitted via the portal by 17 August 2026. Responses to the PME Questionnaire must be submitted by 24 August 2026 at 12:00 noon.
This engagement is being undertaken for market research purposes only and does not constitute a formal procurement process or an invitation to tender.
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 71 days4 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 126 days1 Mar 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published10 Aug 2026, 11:36 BSTUK2
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