Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 31 Jul 2026, 12:15 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Preliminary Market Engagement for Uniforms for Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trust

Authority: Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service (Central government)

Goods
Sectors: Clothing, footwear, luggage articles and accessories (18) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£0pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 2 Nov 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 4 yrsends 30 Sept 2031 · up to 30 Sept 2034 with extensions · starts 1 Oct 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This is a Preliminary Market Engagement Notice to inform and seek engagement with potential suppliers for Uniforms for Health and Social Care Northern Ireland (HSCNI).

CPV: Clothing, footwear, luggage articles and accessories

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 4 yrs
Contract period: 1 Oct 2027 – 30 Sept 2031 (4 yrs) · up to 30 Sept 2034 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 Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service runs Clothing, footwear, bags (CPV 18) tenders for its clients, and who usually turns up

Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service procures on behalf of other bodies; its record below covers every client it has tendered for, 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: Clothing, footwear, bags (CPV 18) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
The marketClothing, footwear, bags (CPV 18) · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 38 of 45 known-size awards · market: division 18 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=25
84%92%

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

How often do local suppliers win?
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 registered in Northern Ireland (authority’s region).

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 6 of 12 known-location awards · market: division 18 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=14
50%79%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Northern Ireland.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 14 decided notices · market: division 18 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=5
52 days141 days

Half of these awards were announced within 52 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 6 of 30 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 18 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=11
20%9%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer91 lots with bid counts · all categories
10% had one bid
The market32 lots with bid counts · division 18 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
3% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid10% / 3%
Buyer: 9 of 91 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
2–326% / 22%
Buyer: 24 of 91 lots with published bid counts. Market: 7 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
4–631% / 13%
Buyer: 28 of 91 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
7+33% / 63%
Buyer: 30 of 91 lots with published bid counts. Market: 20 of 32 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer45 lots with estimate and award · all categories
38% below estimate
The market18 lots with estimate and award · division 18 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
39% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate38% / 39%
Buyer: 17 of 45 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 7 of 18 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%60% / 56%
Buyer: 27 of 45 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 10 of 18 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate2% / 6%
Buyer: 1 of 45 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 1 of 18 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

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

Lot #148 monthsNo real estimate
Expected competition
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 32 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet3% single-bid risk
Past bids on 32 similar lots
1 bid3%
1 of 32 similar past lots received 1 bid (3%).
2–322%
7 of 32 similar past lots received 2–3 (22%).
4–613%
4 of 32 similar past lots received 4–6 (13%).
7+63%
20 of 32 similar past lots received 7+ (63%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 10.5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No real estimate
The buyer published £0 as the estimate (a placeholder, not the contract’s value), so there is nothing to forecast against.

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.

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.

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
Unspecified in notice
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
31 Jul 2026, 12:15 BST
Last source update
31 Jul 2026, 12:15 BST
Authority reference
6567680
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-072672
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Clothing, footwear, luggage articles and accessories
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d8b3 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

31 Jul 2026 → 1 Oct 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published81 days ago
    31 Jul 2026, 12:15 BST
  2. Market engagement66 days ago
    14 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST

    This is a Preliminary Market Engagement to inform and seek engagement with potential suppliers for Uniforms for Health and Social Care Northern Ireland (HSCNI). To this end, BSO Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS) wish to engage with potential suppliers on behalf of HSCNI to obtain a market view of the potential requirements through a questionnaire. Any interested suppliers are required to submit their response through the eTendersNI secure messaging area of CfT 6567680. All correspondence in relation to this PME will be communicated via the secure eTendersNI messaging area. Suppliers will be required to return answers to the questionnaire and any comments no later than 15:00 on Friday 14 August 2026. Suppliers should also note that any interest shown does not constitute a commitment to participate in any future tendering exercise.

  3. Today
    20 Oct 2026
  4. Tender notice expectedin 14 days
    2 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 346 days
    1 Oct 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    31 Jul 2026, 12:15 BST
    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

Regional Business Services Organisation, Procurement and Logistics Service

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PWNJ-1991-NGDW 73 Loughgall Road, Armagh, Northern Ireland, BT61 7PRContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure