Official UK procurement notice
Preliminary Market Engagement for the Supply of Stationery and School Supplies for Education Buying Group Ltd
Authority: Education Buying Group Ltd (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionEducation Buying Group works in partnership with Education Buying and Churchmarketplace (for Catholic education settings) – delivering EBG frameworks and DPSs to education and supporting framework delivery and sector engagement.
This collaborative model ensures:
Clear governance through a school-led PSBO
Expert delivery through experienced procurement organisations
A single, compliant route to market for education buyers
For further information regarding Education Buying Group please visit: educationbuyinggroup.org.uk ↗
Education Buying Group Ltd (EBG Ltd) is inviting responses from providers of Stationery and School Supplies to this Preliminary Market Engagement process in anticipation of a planned Tender process in summer 2026. The current proposed procurement strategy is to procure a single-provider framework delivering all Stationery and School Supplies to our education and wider public sector customers across England and Wales. The anticipated value of the future framework will be set at £45,000,000 over the full 4 year duration of the Framework.
EBG Ltd welcomes consultation with providers and suppliers of this category via a brief questionnaire to understand and test our proposed procurement strategy, inclusions and seek innovative proposals prior to finalising a tender specification and tender process.
Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) is a “pre-procurement” process that enables contracting authorities and/or procurement agents acting on behalf of contracting authorities that are subject to the Procurement Act 2023 to seek responses from the market in a transparent, fair and equitable manner prior to any formal tender process.
The preliminary market engagement is your opportunity to influence the potential shape and solution of a future procurement process. Through this process you can express views and confirm latest product/service developments which may meet the need of the contracting authority.
This process is not a procurement process, although it may form part of a procurement process in the future and as such will be conducted in accordance with The Procurement Act 2023.
The Contracting Authority reserves the right to invite any/all respondents to a meeting/presentation/interview following the closing of the deadline for the receipt of questionnaires. The purpose of this invitation will be to understand and clarify further aspects of the response.
Neither this document nor any associated Preliminary Market Engagement Notice constitutes a ‘call for competition’.
The contracting authority/procurement agent may decide following this process that a future procurement process is not the right solution to meet the specific need identified.
No guarantee or warranty is given as to any statement made in these documents. Any information is given entirely in good faith and liable to change as the future procurement process progresses. Respondents are advised therefore to keep up to date on the progress of this process.
The contracting authority/procurement agent has an obligation to ensure the principles of equal treatment and transparency as required by The Procurement Act 2023 are upheld throughout this process. It may be required therefore to make available to future candidates and tenderers information provided during this PME process. Respondents should also be aware that in some cases contracting authorities are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and as such no information provided by the market can be deemed exempt from disclosure.
All costs and expenses associated with participating in this PME process, including any invitations to meetings and/or presentations will not be reimbursed.
Responses to this PME must be submitted no later than 12noon 29 May 2026 via the Delta e-Tendering Portal. All PME documents are available to download via the Delta e-Tendering Portal.
For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at:
www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-Cardif… ↗
To respond to this opportunity, please click here:
CPV: Dividers for stationery · Educational equipment · Paper stationery and other items · Printed stationery except forms · Stationery
How this framework works
From the published notice- Framework period
- 4 yrs from 1 Oct 2026
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedWhat 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).
- “Preliminary Market Engagement for the Supply of Stationery and School…” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
Competition for Various office equipment and supplies (CPV 3019), and who usually turns up
Education Buying Group Ltd has too little published record in this market to describe on its own. Published market evidence for the same work stands beside whatever it has. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. Whole-market view: Various office equipment and supplies (CPV 3019) →
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.
Across this market, small firms won 68% of awards with a known supplier size.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Here, local means the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Across this market, 3% of winners were registered in 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.
Half of these awards were announced within 89 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.
Across this market, at least 28% of awarded procurements had no recorded rival.
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 bid13%
2–316%
4–626%
7+45%
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.
On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Not comparable on a framework or DPS. The notice sets up a supplier panel and a ceiling value; what the work actually costs is agreed later, on each call-off or mini-competition, and those publish as contract notices of their own. The award-vs-estimate record of this market therefore sits on the call-offs; this page shows it on the contracts, not on the panel that frames them.
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 3019Published estimate£45m
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 14 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid0%
2–343%
4–621%
7+36%
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
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Framework agreement
- Who may use this agreement
- Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 5 May 2026, 09:41 BST
- Last source update
- 5 May 2026, 09:41 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-040822- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0690dfFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Appointment period ends
- —
Timeline
5 May 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published169 days ago5 May 2026, 09:41 BST
- Market engagement145 days ago29 May 2026, 23:59 BST
Responses to the PME Supplier Questionnaire are invited via Delta eSourcing no later than 12noon 29 May 2026. EBG Ltd reserves the right to invite any/all respondents to a meeting/presentation/interview following the closing of the deadline for the receipt of questionnaires. The purpose of this invitation will be to understand and clarify further aspects of the response. Any meetings/presentations or interviews following initial PME submissions will be communicated with respondents as applicable.
- Tender notice expected82 days ago31 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts21 days ago1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published5 May 2026, 09:41 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