Provision of Hot Meals to Woodbrook National School

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1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

This tender seeks a contractor to provide hot meals under the School Meals Scheme to Woodbrook National School. The estimated contract value is €54,163.20. The school operates for 182 days per year, and the contractor must provide service on each of these days, barring exceptional circumstances. The contract is for the provision and delivery of hot meals, with a specified fee of €3.20 (VAT exempt) per student per day for each hot meal provided.

The contractor's responsibilities include:

• Service Delivery: Providing hot meals that meet specified nutritional standards, including a minimum of 10% organic ingredients by value in categories such as cereals, fresh beef, lamb, pork, poultry, fish, vegetables, and dairy products, where possible.
• Ordering System: Implementing and managing a food ordering system (e.g., app, website, email) allowing for meal orders and adjustments. This system must detail ordering procedures and time limits. Imagery of the ordering system is required.
• Food Service: Ensuring individual packaging and labelling of meals, and the provision of cutlery and napkins. Imagery of individual packaging and labelling is required.
• Food Plan and Standards: Proposing a food plan that is fresh, healthy, nutritious, and varied, accommodating dietary needs such as intolerances, allergies, lactose-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and halal options. The plan must consider daily, weekly, and seasonal variations.
• Food Quality and Safety: Maintaining high standards of food quality, freshness, and nutritional content. This includes ensuring correct food temperatures from delivery to serving, and preventing cross-contamination for allergies and intolerces. Mitigation against menu fatigue is also required.
• Contract Management: Assigning a Key Account Manager (KAM) with proven experience to oversee service delivery. A CV for the KAM and a nominated back-up KAM (max 2 A4 pages each) must be submitted.
• Complaint/Incident Management: Establishing a clear approach for managing and resolving complaints and incidents, including product recalls, food contamination, customer complaints, medical incidents (food-borne illness, allergies), and food quality issues.
• Staff Resourcing: Ensuring continuous resourcing with skilled, knowledgeable, and trained staff. This includes managing resources for quality and continuity, providing ongoing training, and implementing succession planning for resource replacement.
• Green Procurement and Sustainability: Detailing an approach to waste minimisation and management, with a focus on food waste prevention, use of environmentally friendly packaging, and reduction of plastics. A sustainable purchasing policy favouring local suppliers, seasonal produce, and waste minimisation in purchasing decisions is also required.

The contractor must adhere to the "Nutrition Standards for Hot School Meals" and the "Buying Greener" strategy.

3. Background & buyer context

This procurement is conducted under the Department of Social Protection’s School Meals Scheme. Woodbrook National School is the contracting authority. The tender is for the provision of hot meals to students at the school. The estimated contract value is below the EU threshold of €750,000, meaning the procurement follows national regulations. The school operates 182 days per year. The tender documents reference the "Buying Greener" strategy and Directive (EU) 2019/904, indicating a focus on sustainability and waste reduction in public procurement.

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

Bidders must meet the following criteria to be considered:

• Turnover requirement: A minimum average annual turnover equal to or greater than €18,054.40 for each of the three financial years immediately preceding the tender publication date. If submitting as a consortium, this requirement can be met by the combined turnover of members.
• Insurance: The successful tenderer must hold the following insurances for the contract term:
• Employer’s Liability: €13 million limit per claim.
• Public Liability: €6.5 million limit per claim.
• Product Liability: €6.5 million limit per claim.
• Professional Indemnity: €6.5 million limit per claim (only relevant for Service Delivery Models 2, 3, or 4 involving fit-out works).
• Motor Cover: Minimum €1.3 million for third-party property damage per accident.
• Crime Insurance: €100,000 per claim.
• Cyber Liability: €1 million per claim and in aggregate per policy year.
• Employer’s Liability, Public Liability, and Product Liability policies must include an indemnity to principal’s clause.
• Certifications: Tenderers must be registered as Food Business Operators (FBOs) with the relevant competent authority (HSE, local authority, or DAFM).
• Past experience: Tenderers must demonstrate experience by providing details of at least three previous contract examples (public or private sector) within the last three years. These contracts must be for hot catering services of a similar nature, scale, and value. Collectively, these examples must demonstrate an average of 60% or more of the number of meals required in this competition. Written references from three named referees for these contracts are mandatory.
• Personnel: Key Account Managers (KAMs) must hold a Food Safety/HACCP qualification and have a minimum of 2 years of experience in a similar role.
• Geographic / facility constraints: Not specified for this tender.

Supporting documentation required includes audited financial statements for the last three years, FBO registration confirmation, and details of previous contract examples with references.

5. Award criteria & scoring

The contract will be awarded based on a combination of quality and price. 1,000 marks are available for qualitative assessment.

Tenderers must achieve a minimum score of 70% for each indicated sub-criterion or sub-sub-criterion. Failure to meet this threshold for any criterion will result in elimination. The price component is not explicitly detailed in terms of marks but is part of the overall award decision.

6. Submission requirements

Tenderers must submit their response using the provided Tender Response Document (TRD). Key submission requirements include:

• TRD Completion: All sections of the TRD must be completed accurately.
• Mandatory Site Visit: Confirmation of attendance at a mandatory site visit is required.
• Declarations:
• Declaration of no conflicts of interest and no anti-competitive behaviour, on headed paper and signed.
• Declaration of no convictions for specified criminal offences, no breach of tax/social security obligations, no grave professional misconduct, and no significant deficiencies in prior contract performance.
• Tenderer's Statement (on headed paper, signed).
• Financial Documentation:
• Turnover amounts for the last three financial years.
• Copies of audited financial statements for the last three years, including an unqualified audit report.
• Experience Documentation:
• Details of three previous contract examples in Section 9 of the TRD.
• Client references for each of the three previous contract examples.
• Technical Documentation:
• Confirmation of FBO registration with supporting documentation.
• Imagery of the ordering system.
• Imagery of individual packaging and labelling.
• CVs for the proposed KAM and nominated back-up KAM (max 2 A4 pages each).
• Pricing: Not explicitly detailed in the TRD, but implied to be part of the overall submission.
• Submission Portal: Submissions must be made via the eTenders platform.

7. Key dates & process

8. Contract terms that matter

• Term: The contract term is not explicitly stated but is implied to be for the duration of the school year (182 days).
• Payment: Payment will be made on a 30-day arrears basis at a rate of €3.20 (VAT exempt) per student per day.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): While not detailed in the provided extract, Schedule D (Service Level Agreement) of the Services Contract is referenced, indicating specific performance requirements. Complaints are to be resolved within 3-5 days.
• Liquidated Damages: Not specified in the extract.
• Termination: Either party may terminate with 14 days' notice if a breach continues for 14 calendar days. Specific termination clauses for breaches are also mentioned, requiring remedy within 30 days.
• IP Ownership: Not specified.
• Sub-contracting: Not specified.
• Guarantees/Bonds: Not specified.

9. Risks, red flags & unusuals

• Mandatory Site Visit: A mandatory site visit is required, which can limit participation for businesses not located nearby or with scheduling conflicts.
• Tight Quality Thresholds: The requirement to achieve a minimum of 70% in each sub-criterion for award criteria is stringent and requires a comprehensive, high-quality response across all areas.
• Detailed Sustainability Requirements: The emphasis on "Buying Greener" and specific targets for waste reduction and sustainable purchasing adds complexity to the response.
• Specific Experience Requirements: The need for three previous contract examples demonstrating a collective 60% of the required meal volume, with written references, is a significant hurdle for newer or smaller operators.
• Unspecified Contract Length and Start Date: The absence of a defined contract length and start date creates uncertainty for bidders regarding long-term planning and mobilisation.

10. SME fit assessment

This tender is structured to be accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that specialise in catering services, particularly those with experience in school or institutional food provision.

• Credible Bidders: A viable bidder would be an established catering company with a proven track record in delivering hot meals, possessing the necessary food safety certifications (FBO registration), and capable of meeting the insurance and experience requirements. The minimum annual turnover of €18,054.40 is relatively low, making it achievable for many SMEs.
• Consortium/Sub-contracting: The tender explicitly states that the turnover requirement may be satisfied by the combined annual turnover of consortium members, indicating that consortia are permitted and potentially encouraged to allow smaller entities to bid. Sub-contracting is not explicitly mentioned but is generally permissible in public sector contracts unless restricted.
• Indicative Bid-Prep Effort: Preparing a compliant bid will require significant effort. This includes gathering financial statements, FBO registration proof, details of three past contracts with references, developing detailed responses for all award criteria (especially the sustainability and quality aspects), and preparing KAM CVs. This could reasonably take 5-10 working days for an experienced bid team, potentially more if significant new documentation or proposal development is required.
• Pwin Signal: The low estimated value and the specific experience requirements (3 contracts, 60% meal volume) suggest a competitive tender. The mandatory site visit and stringent quality thresholds mean that bidders must be well-prepared and genuinely capable of meeting the detailed requirements. There is no clear indication of an incumbent being favoured, but the experience criteria will naturally favour those with a history of similar contracts.

11. Where to dig deeper

• Source RFT Filename: TRD - Hot Meals - Woodbrook National School 05220P.docx
• eTenders CFT ID: Not specified in the provided text.
• Contact / Clarification Portal: Via the eTenders platform.
• Most Important Attachments:
• Appendix 1 (likely detailing nutritional standards and service requirements).
• Schedule D: Service Level Agreement (referenced for performance requirements).
• Appendix 3 (Tenderer's Statement template).