Suppliers Section

Introduction

West Mercia Supplies ( WMS ) is a Purchasing Consortium owned by four local authorities – Shropshire County Council, the Borough of Telford & Wrekin, Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire Council. WMS is run by a joint committee of Councillors from each of its owning authorities.

WMS is only able to supply to non profit making organisations, our main customers being schools and local authorities. We operate from a modern, purpose built warehouse and offices in Shrewsbury and our customer base, in addition to our four owning authorities, extends from Manchester in the North West, to Staffordshire, the West Midlands and into the South West and South Wales. Our growing customer base now exceeds 8,000 customers.

WMS produces an annual catalogue which is distributed to all existing customers and potential customers.

Products include:

Contacts

 >> List of all contacts in the procurement section

How We Buy

WMS is a professional purchasing organisation and we have a duty to purchase goods and services in such a way that it achieves best value for its customers and its four owning authorities.

There is considerable competition for WMS business. To be in a position to win a contract with WMS, suppliers will need to demonstrate that they can supply high quality products and services at competitive prices. We spend approximately £30 million per annum on a range of over 6,000 products. We are also significant buyers of gas and electricity.

We are actively trying to do business with more, smaller local businesses and welcome enquiries from them at all times.

The award of contracts must comply with relevant EU and UK law. The tendering and awarding of contracts is also governed by our own Standing Orders and Financial Regulations.

WMS must let certain contracts for the supply of goods and services in accordance with EU Procurement Directives. These directives have been incorporated into UK law and apply to all contracts exceeding a certain threshold, which is currently £139,893.

If any contract exceeds this value we are required to follow the appropriate tendering procedures. These involve an initial contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union ( OJEU ). OJEU is available in electronic form either on CD Rom or through the Internet. You can obtain further information by using the OJEU link on this page.

Where appropriate, we follow a restricted procedure for these tenders which involves a pre-qualification phase, with tenders being invited from those applicants who meet certain predetermined criteria. These will normally include a potential suppliers financial stability, quality, experience and environmental factors which will help identify a potential suppliers capacity and capability to undertake one of our contracts.

Suppliers who meet the pre-qualification criteria will usually be invited to tender. The decision on who is successful in being awarded a WMS contract will be based on a robust analysis of tender submissions. This will include, but will not be limited to, life cycle costing, quality, sustainability and, where applicable, maintenance and support.

The criteria used by WMS to select successful suppliers will be fair and transparent.

What We Buy

Advice on how to Tender

Our General Commitments

WMS encourages a diverse and competitive supply market to include small firms ( SME’s ), social enterprises, ethnic minority businesses ( BME’s ) and voluntary and community sector suppliers. We are committed to ensuring that our approach to individual contracts, including large contracts and framework agreements, is supported by a sound business case and options appraisal.

Where we decide that the best value option is to aggregate supply or let a longer term contract or framework agreement, we will invite bidders to demonstrate their track record in achieving value for money through the effective use of their supply chain.

We will consider the role of SME and BME specialist suppliers in delivering elements of larger contracts and framework agreements.

Access To Contract Opportunities & Increasing Our Supplier Base

We will publish on our web site guidance for suppliers on how to do business with WMS, details of forthcoming tender opportunities, contact details for each contract with appropriate links to any regional site and the national public sector opportunities portal.

Developing The Supply Chain

We will give potential suppliers an opportunity to discuss any procurement in order to understand our requirements and assess their own suitability. However, no information will be given which would give a particular business or service provider an unfair advantage in competing for a specific contract.

Suppliers will be paid within the agreed payment terms provided the invoice is accurate and not in dispute.

We will give suppliers honest and constructive feedback on their performance of any contract they are awarded.

Fair Tender Processes

We will apply our own rules and policies fairly.

At the pre-tender stage and during the tender process, WMS will ensure that all tenderers have equal access to all relevant information in accordance with appropriate procedures.

We will keep the tender process as simple as possible in order to help minimise the costs of tendering to suppliers.

If the tender process includes a pre-qualification stage, we will use a standard pre-qualification questionnaire and will attempt to limit, as far as is possible, bespoke additions.

Potential suppliers will be assessed against published pre-qualification and tender evaluation criteria. These criteria will be proportionate to the risks of the individual contract process. In particular the criteria relating to financial standing will not be set to unreasonably exclude newer businesses.

Feedback & Complaints

We will offer meaningful feedback to suppliers following a procurement process to help suppliers improve their future tender bids.

We will seek feedback from suppliers, and if appropriate their respective trade organisations, on our tender processes and address, where we can, any problems that are brought to our attention.

We will consider all written complaints in a careful and open manner and will seek to satisfy the complainant.

Contract Management

We will treat suppliers openly and fairly.

Suppliers will:

 

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