Official UK procurement notice
TimberLINK Services · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Scottish Forestry
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe TimberLINK Public Service Contract (PSC) is a timber transport and shipping service established in 2000 to transport around 75,000 tonnes of timber per annum from various forest locations to ports in Argyll, then via sea, and onwards to a range of markets in Ayrshire. A subsidy is available to resource this service. The five-year contract, which totals 4.725GBP million capped at 0.945GBP million per annum, will run from 01 April 2027 until 31 March 2032 inclusive.
CPV: Transport services (excl. Waste transport)
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Planned
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
Competition for Transport services (except waste transport) (CPV 60), and who usually turns up
Scottish Forestry 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. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Transport services (except waste transport) (CPV 60) →
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.
No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.
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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 Scotland.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Scotland.
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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 35 days of the bid deadline.
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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.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
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 bid56%
2–328%
4–66%
7+9%
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.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate38%
Within ±2%15%
Above estimate46%
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.
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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 #1Published estimate£4.7m
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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. The bar shows 78 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid56%
2–328%
4–66%
7+9%
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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Associated British PortsEarlier contract | TimberLINK Servicesended May 2025 | — | £4.8m | Matched as the earlier contract |
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.
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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.
What this replaces i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
100% title match.
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.
100% title match.
A past supplier may not bid again.
The prior contract this notice most likely re-tenders · matched by title and category (100% title match), the holder is not guaranteed to re-bid
TimberLINK Services — held by Associated British Ports; the published contract ends 31 May 2025.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- 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
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 25 Aug 2026, 12:26 BST
- Last source update
- 25 Aug 2026, 12:26 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-080816- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06eb83Find a Tender
Publisher note: This is a prior information notice to provide suppliers with advanced notice of our intention to go out to tender in October 2026 only. No tender responses are being invited at this time. NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Public Contracts Scotland Web Site at https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=841097. (SC Ref:841097)
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
25 Aug 2026 → 29 Oct 2026 · 2 dates- Notice published56 days ago25 Aug 2026, 12:26 BST
- Today20 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 9 days29 Oct 2026
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
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.