The 'Meet The Bidder' event was held at the Council Offices in Coventry on the 25th May 2010. There are 2 preferred bidders in the spotlight; BAM Construction and CP4L (Laing) in competition with each other for the contract, on which a decision is expected by October this year.
Paul Hackney, Project Coordinator together with Luke Cawston, Supply Chain Coordinator were both present at the event and saw all of the 40+ companies that attended as potential sub-contractors for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) in Coventry programme. The government has put £45 billion into the programme and divided it up nationally into a number of waves. Coventry is in Wave 4 and has been allocated around £325m for buildings and £30m for ICT.
Although it was actually BAM that started the conversation with Paul about attending, the Council’s BSF programme did invite WMCCE to be present to support the bidders, the Council and the contractors. We had a stand area that displayed our banner stand and a variety of marketing materials.
After the visiting contractors saw either BAM or CP4L they then came to us, especially if they had been informed as they were by BAM, that they wouldn’t be suitable to supply unless they improved their business offering and/or capability. We also saw several non-smes that were interested in finding out about WMCCE and what we could offer.
In total, we saw about 22 contractors that wanted to discuss specific training/improvement requirements for their business and some common themes came out of the conversation; about Health & Safety Policies, ISO Accreditation and general capability of applying for and winning bids.
It was a full interactive day from 9.00 – 5.00 with all contractors being given a 15 minutes slot with each of the 2 bidders; each of whom had at least 3 tables with representatives on from the host bidding organisation. The day was very busy at times with contractors overlapping and interesting conversations being extended. Most contractors came along in pairs to visit the bidders, some from the same company, others from individual companies, but already forming a first stage partnership in order to show more capability to the bidders.
The majority of the contractors were not familiar with WMCCE prior to the event so it was a good opportunity for us to inform and start to work with several new faces.
Over the next few weeks work will start with the contractors by WMCCE proposing suitable business improvement projects for them, so that they can be better placed to win work with the successful bidder for the Coventry BSF programme.
Paul Hackney says “ WMCCE, as an impartial body for the construction industry, was able to provide support for all three parties at the event; Coventry City Council, the 2 bidders and the collective group of contractors who attended. It was a busy day with companies queuing to see us for our support and we are pleased to say that we will be able to assist all of them with their plans to win a place on the successful bidder’s supply chain.”
