Concrete Tenders and the Construction Industry

Great news – the construction industry is brimming with complex concrete tenders. This means that there is a wide range of construction contracts, suitable for both small and large organisations.

Additionally, the concrete industry is rapidly evolving. Buyers and suppliers must consider innovations, sustainable growth and their supply chains.

So what kind of concrete tenders might you find?

Possibilities include:

• Kerbs and sleepers
• Cement supply
• Building material supply
• Aggregates and ready mixed concrete
• Concrete removal
• Repairs and remedial works
• Full refurbishments
• Car park repairs

Opportunities also exist for concrete sub-categories such as:

• Aggregates
• Ready-made concrete
• Rebar
• Concrete blocks
• Pre-cast concretes
• Cement materials
• Admixtures
• Mortar

Categories that concrete tenders apply to can both public and private sector buyers. Opportunities to apply for concrete tenders exist in:

• Retail and commercial spaces
• Residential sites
• Education and healthcare sites
• Commercial sites and industrial buildings
• Museums and public offices

The list really does go on. The concrete industry is rapidly expanding, and with that – tendering opportunities.

Broadly speaking, public sector buyers will advertise more framework tenders than private sector buyers. That does not mean to say that the public sector is short of single contract concrete tenders. Quite the opposite. Concrete tenders remain a high demand service provision across the changing urban landscape.

CDM 2015

On any concrete tenders project, you may be required to work with a range of other contractors. For example, architects, quantity surveyors, and other material suppliers.

Working with other stakeholders, you must be able to demonstrate your ability to collaborate, manage contracts, and create mobilisation plans which will effectively deliver the work.

Familiarity with CDM 2015 is also essential for many concrete construction projects. More formally named the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, contractors must now create a construction plan. Dependent on the scale of work involved, contractors may also need to inform relevant regulatory bodies, like HSE.

For large-scale tenders, a principal contractor will be assigned to the contract. Their responsibility is to effectively manage a project’s construction phase, ensuring it is streamlined, organised and compliant with legislation.

Other projects may require you to be familiar with a JCT contract in a non-principal contractor capacity. Familiarity with CDM regulations and JCT contracts are therefore essential in the concrete tendering process. It may sound obvious, but If you have JCT contract experience, your case studies are invaluable here.

It’s worth building up a bank of your key experience. A useful approach here could be to spend time creating a JCT experience spreadsheet. This could detail aspects including:

• Project title and client;
• Location;
• Contract dates and values;
• Contract management team (such as Contract Manager, Site Manager and Project Manager);
• JCT specifics;
• A short summary of your organisation’s roles and responsibilities;
• The contract brief, with details such as budget and specification;
• Details of the site, such as warehouse, hotel, etc.;
• A summary of your specific working practices and methods;
• Key referee contact details;
• Any other added value which you provided to the project

This spreadsheet will support your case study development. It will also enable you to quickly gather all contract facts and figures from one place. The spreadsheet approach can save you time and reduce the number of back-and-forth emails between colleagues.

BIM

An understanding of Building Information Modelling (BIM) can be beneficial on some concrete tenders. This is because BIM facilitates better information sharing and data between parties involved in a project’s design and construction. Therefore, if you choose to tender as a concrete manufacturer, having product data sheets ready can be beneficial.

This data can be used to support BIM processes. Additionally, some buyers may require BIM as a specification requirement. Contributing to BIM data will also help deliver more effective sustainable processes during construction design. Therefore, the benefits of BIM to concrete tenders are:

• That accurate data modelling is provided, which benefits all project contributors;
• It can model the potential environmental and embodied carbon effect of concrete products and materials;
• It can benefit BREEAM sustainability assessments.

Concrete and environmental considerations

Concrete is heavily linked to carbon, sustainability, and responsible sourcing processes. Within the tendering process, buyers may request concrete-specific standards and codes. These codes are standards for thermal performance, environmental impact, reinforcements, aggregates and more.

As a supplier, you should be familiar with standards and codes such as:  

• Thermal Performance: Part L1A 2013
• Target Fabric Energy Efficiency rates (TFEE)
• BS EN 1992, Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures
• BS 8297: 2017 Design, manufacture and installation of architectural precast concrete cladding code of practice
• BS EN 206: 2013 +A1:2016 – Concrete – specification, performance, production and conformity
• BS 8500-2:2015+A2:2019 – Concrete – specifying and guidance for the specifier
• BS EN 197-1:2011 – Composition, specification and conformity criteria for common cements.
• BS EN 10080:2005 – Steel for the reinforcement of concrete – Weldable reinforcing steel – General
• BES 6001 – Responsible sourcing of construction products

The above list is dependent on the type of service and material supplied. The key point here is ensure that your organisation is fully up-to-date with industry requirements. Not only this – you must be able to demonstrate these requirements.

You can do this through evidence, case studies, sample documents, training records, and similar. As a golden rule, the more specific and relevant your evidence is, the better.

PAS 91 

The PAS 91 is often essential to complete in construction bids. It is a standardised pre-qualification questionnaire for the construction industry. The PAS 91 is a comprehensive questionnaire which requests supplier information about:

• Essential company and contact information
• The company’s financial standing
• Insurances in place
• Business standing – verifying the organisation and staff integrity
• Health and Safety policies

Whilst the PAS 91 is a very rigorous questionnaire, it does offer exemptions if you have specific accreditations. This is because those accreditations already demonstrate you have the required criteria. Certifications and memberships that may gain you an exemption to certain PAS 91 question responses include:

• ISO 18001 International Health and Safety Management systems accreditation
• Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) membership
• ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems accreditation
• ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems accreditation

That is not to say that having these accreditations are essential to completing a PAS 91 questionnaire. It does however make the process a lot simpler! The reason is that these certifications save time and effort during the sometimes complex tendering process.

Bigger organisations who tender frequently would benefit from having these accreditations in place. Or, to be working towards accreditation.

There is a lot of cost, time and planning involved in becoming accredited. Smaller organisations must weigh up the benefits of each accreditation to the type of work they will tender for. Broadly speaking, having any level of ISO Quality Management Accreditation will benefit your organisation and the concrete tendering process.

The reason is that health and safety, quality and environmental quality management systems are organisation-wide processes. They demonstrate that you have processes, procedures and systems in place to consistently deliver a standard. These accreditations will enable you to discuss persuasively why your organisation is best placed to deliver concrete tenders.

To prepare for ISO accreditation requires a thorough review (and sometimes upheaval) of organisational processes. Careful consideration must be given to the end goal. This means not only thinking about accreditation but also that planning must be projected forward to maintaining those ISO management systems. This can be through people, planning, policies, training, company ethos, and documentation, for example.

Health & Safety 

As with any construction project, health and safety is absolutely paramount. When preparing concrete tenders, due consideration should be given to risk assessments, COSHH, RIDDOR and PPE.

Organisations must consider:

• All employees
• Members of the public
• Vulnerable workers
• Site visitors

Risks present during any concrete works may include:

• Working at height
• Manual handling
• Machinery, plant and equipment
• Harmful substances
• Noise
• Slips and falls

Companies are now expected to manage coronavirus risk. These essentially come down to managing risk in various capacities. The key points here are to identify, assess and control risks. Essential to this process is to document your findings and propose mitigation strategies.

How can we help you with your next concrete tender? Contact us today to find out more. We offer a full range of service which can improve your organisation’s potential.

At Hudson, we also provide a dedicated portal, Construction Tenders. On this portal, you can find the most relevant construction leads and up-to-date concrete tenders across the UK and further afield.

Signing up, you will receive the following benefits which will support your tendering efforts:

• A dedicated Account Manager, who will answer your tendering queries;
• Daily new tenders, relevant to you, direct to your inbox;
• You can search this sector-specific portal using filters that you need. No more scouring across lots of different websites for relevant tenders. We have all construction contracts in the UK right here on one easy portal;
• We don’t use computer algorithms to find concrete tenders, but dedicated Opportunity Trackers. This Opportunity Tracking team manually do all of the hard work for you;
• Ultimately, our construction portal will save you time, money and effort. So what are you waiting for? Contact us today, to find your next ideal concrete tendering opportunity.

Get in Touch with Construction Tenders:

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily bulletin straight to your inbox, containing all relevant small construction tenders uploaded that day.

Below are past concrete tenders sourced on our portal:

Concrete Survey

NHS South West – Acutes- South West- Budget: £70,000

Contractor Services for Steel and Concrete Repairs for Kingsway Fan Grill Replacement and Associated Works

Merseytravel- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Framework Agreement for the Supply of Ready Mixed Concrete

City & County of Swansea- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Kirkby Wharfe New – Concrete Saddle

North Yorkshire County Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Pre-cast Concrete L-Shape Retaining Walls

SCS JV- London- Budget: £2,500,000

This includes the following:

• Architectural Tenders
• Refurbishment Tenders
• Brickwork Tenders
• Building Works
• Health & Safety Tenders
• Small Construction Tenders
• Civil Engineering Tenders
• Electrical Tenders
• Surveying Tenders
• Demolition Tenders
• Flooring Tenders
• Glass Tenders
• M&E
• Cost Consultancy
• Painting Contracts
• Decorating Tenders
• Masonry and many more.

Further Support

The construction industry has a wide range of  Concrete Tenders on offer. If you need support in your tendering efforts, contact us today.