Official UK procurement notice
Provision of Gas Cylinders and Cylinder Management
Authority: CENTRE FOR PROCESS INNOVATION LIMITED (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionCPI are looking to appoint a suitably experienced contractor for the supply and rental of gas cylinders, to CPI estate. As well as the supply and rental of the gas cylinders, CPI expect the contractor will proactively manage this contract, to make sure that cylinder rentals and costs are controlled.
The Contractor is asked to note that the gas supplied as part of this contract will change depending on any projects that CPI are undertaking.
The service will be conducted at the CPI sites outlined in the table below, the Contractor is asked to note the information on opening hours and deliveries can only be accepted during these hours.
- The authority expects to re-tender this requirement around 1 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT.
CPV: Gases · Industrial gases
How this framework works
From the published notice- Type
- Closed framework
- Call-offs
- call-offs are awarded directly to appointed suppliers, without further competition
- Places
- up to 2 suppliers
- Framework period
- 2 yrs · up to 4 yrs from 16 Jul 2027
Published description of the framework
Direct Award
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1RenewalPublished value£750,000
What 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).
Published sub-criteria (6)
- Service Delivery and Supply Capability: 10%
- Cylinder Management and Rental Control: 20%
- Account Management: 15%
- Account Consolidation: 15%
- Implementation and Mobilisation: 10%
- Pricing: 30%
Published award criteria (6)
- Service Delivery and Supply Capability: In their response to the tender, bidders should indicate in the response to tender questionnaire. Please describe your approach to ensuring reliable supply of gas cylinders across all CPI sites, including how you will manage routine deliveries, urgent requests, and collections. How will you ensure continuity of supply where CPI’s gas requirements change on a project-by-project basis? Please explain your ability to source and supply specialist or less commonly used gases, including expected lead times.
- Cylinder Management and Rental Control: In their response to the tender, bidders should indicate in the response to tender questionnaire. Please describe how you will proactively manage cylinder rental to minimise unnecessary hire charges. What processes, systems, and reporting will you use to identify idle, duplicate, or aged cylinders across the CPI estate? How will you work with CPI site leads and technical teams to ensure cylinders are returned promptly, including partly used cylinders where rental costs outweigh residual value? Please provide examples of how you have reduced cylinder rental costs for other customers through active cylinder management.
- Account Management: In their response to the tender, bidders should indicate in the response to tender questionnaire. Please describe the account management model you will provide for this contract, including governance, escalation routes, meeting frequency, and day-to-day support. How will your account manager and wider team support CPI in reviewing cylinder usage, forecasting demand, and controlling costs? Please provide a sample of the management information you would expect to provide as part of ongoing contract management.
- Account Consolidation: In their response to the tender, bidders should indicate in the response to tender questionnaire. Please describe your proposed approach to consolidating existing CPI accounts into a single master billing account or equivalent parent/child structure. How will you ensure no disruption to ordering, deliveries, collections, invoicing, or reporting during account consolidation? What controls will you apply to ensure cylinder records, rental start dates, and existing account references are migrated accurately and duplicate charges are avoided? Please describe your approach to reconciliation following consolidation.
- Implementation and Mobilisation: In their response to the tender, bidders should indicate in the response to tender questionnaire. Please describe your proposed implementation approach from contract award to go-live. What resources and roles will form your implementation team, and how will you ensure continuity of key personnel? How will you manage transition from an incumbent supplier to avoid disruption to CPI operations? Please provide an outline implementation plan, including key milestones, risks, dependencies, and timescales.
- Pricing
- Price carries 30 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 3 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
- “Provision of Gas Cylinders and Cylinder Management” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, up to 2 suppliers, not a single contract, and call-offs are awarded directly: getting appointed is the whole game.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid
How CENTRE FOR PROCESS INNOVATION LIMITED buys Industrial gases (CPV 2411), and who usually turns up
CENTRE FOR PROCESS INNOVATION LIMITED’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. Whole-market view: Industrial gases (CPV 2411) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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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.
No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.
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.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside North East England.
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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 78 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?
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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 bid71% / 0%
2–314% / 100%
4–614% / 0%
7+0% / 0%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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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 2411Published estimate£750k
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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.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid74%
2–325%
4–61%
7+0%
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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.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIR PRODUCTS PLCWorked for this buyer | Framework for the Supply of Bulk Gases and Associated Equipmentruns to Jun 2030 | — | £2.0m | Similar wording and category |
| Fisher Scientific UKWorked for this buyer | Supply of DCI, CSO and POSnotice published Aug 2024 | Supply of POS | — | Similar wording and category |
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.
| Supplier | Won in this category | Live contracts | Award vs estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
BOC LtdLarge | £21m43 awards in 36m · last 1 months ago | 12 live · £110k iPublic contracts this supplier still holds. Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book. Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity. | 6% below n=3 |
AIR PRODUCTS PLCLarge | £7.7m7 awards in 36m · last 1 months ago | 2 live · £2 iPublic contracts this supplier still holds. Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book. Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity. | no comparable pairs |
Fisher Scientific UKLarge | £821k22 awards in 36m · last 1 months ago | 3 live · £294k iPublic contracts this supplier still holds. Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book. Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity. | 6% below n=2 |
| £5.0m5 awards in 36m · last 4 months ago | 3 live · £17k iPublic contracts this supplier still holds. Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book. Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity. | no comparable pairs | |
BTG GasesSME | 7 awards in 36m · last 16 months ago | 6 live · £6 iPublic contracts this supplier still holds. Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book. Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity. | no comparable pairs |
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- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Open admission
- 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
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Yes · next expected 1 Dec 2026
- First published
- 20 Oct 2026, 16:22 BST
- Last source update
- 20 Oct 2026, 16:22 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 1 Dec 2026
- Authority reference
3973- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-099172- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078c33Find a Tender
How to participate & submission route
Official notice Apply via In-tend- Requests to participate (first stage)
- —
- Appointment period ends
- 16 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Clarification deadline
- —
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
20 Oct 2026 → 16 Jul 2027 · 4 dates- Tender notice published1 day ago20 Oct 2026, 16:22 BST
- Today21 Oct 2026
- Admission / appointment period endsin 26 days · period end, not a bid countdown16 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Award decision expected byin 42 days1 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 268 days16 Jul 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Tender notice published20 Oct 2026, 16:22 BSTUK4
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Nothing awarded yet- 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
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender