Supplier Guide to Tendering

In this section

7. Where do we advertise our contract opportunities

All procurement activity over the value of £25,000, including Tenders over the UK Public Procurement threshold is advertised on Sell2Wales. We advise suppliers to register on Sell2Wales which is the national Procurement Portal. This includes all widely advertised procurement opportunities valued both above and below the UK Public Procurement thresholds for the public sector. This is a free online service and allows you to promote your organisation not only to the Council but to other Welsh Public Sector bodies.

You can use Sell2Wales to:

  • Search for current contract opportunities
  • Receive alerts for new opportunities
  • Link to other procurement portals to conduct your tenders, (for example eTenderWales)
  • View PIN’s (Prior Information Notices) regarding future opportunities
  • View details of awarded contracts
  • Find contact information and profiles of other public sector bodies

It is important to only register against the categories which are relevant to the goods, services or works your organisation provides. This will ensure that you only receive notifications about contract opportunities suitable to your field of work.

Common Procurement Vocabulary Codes is a coding structure used in the classification of public sector contracts to find tender opportunities that relate to the products or service you provide quickly and easily. Suppliers will need to select the appropriate CPV codes that match the goods, works or services they provide. Both FTS and Sell2Wales use the CPV codes. A list of CPV codes is available on the Sell2Wales website during registration.

When you are ready to submit your bid, you will need to do this through the eTenderWales website, where you can register for free. You will also need to register in order to view or download any documentation associated with the tender.

If you feel your company may not have the skills or capacity to submit bids for larger contracts alone, you could join another supplier and bid together. This is known as Joint Bidding. It allows companies to pool their resources to increase their collective capacity or coverage, in order to compete for contracts that may otherwise have been out of reach. For guidance on how small businesses can form consortia to help them compete for large public contracts, visit the Welsh Government website.

Spend under 25K

At present, there is no formal requirement to advertise quotations under £25k on the Sell2Wales. We do advertise some of our tenders valued under £25K on the Sell2Wales website, however this matter is under constant review. In most cases, it is the responsibility of each department within the Council to obtain quotes for any goods or services they would like to purchase. This means that not all of our opportunities will be listed. If you would like further support on how you can trade with us, e-mail kbaker@carmarthenshire.gov.uk or call 01267 246241.

Procurement is considered to be a critical factor by both elected members and senior officers, whereby one of the underlying considerations is to “Think Carmarthenshire First” when purchasing goods and services when seeking quotations for goods or services below £25,000” which are not covered by current arrangements.