Horticulture and Landscaping Tenders: The Secrets to Success

Posted on 12th August 202210th August 2022 by John Hudson

Looking for tips on finding and winning horticulture and landscaping tenders? Here’s 4 secrets from the experts!

Got questions about horticulture and landscaping tenders? Welcome to Facilities Tenders! Here, we have plenty of answers to some of the many questions you likely have. Want to know where to find horticulture and landscaping tenders? Perhaps you want to learn how to win these and write winning proposals. Luckily, you’re in the right place! Read on to learn more…

What are horticulture and landscaping tenders?

For those completely new to horticulture and landscaping tenders, here’s what they are.

Tenders for horticulture and landscaping works are contracts which organisations can bid for. A buyer may require certain landscaping work that they cannot deliver themselves. So, they will outsource to another company/individual.

Various suppliers can bid for the contract, and the buyer will select the most suitable candidate. The suppliers must provide a bid proposal expressing why they are the most suitable for the contract.

Where can you find horticulture and landscaping tenders?

If you are looking for horticulture and landscaping tenders, then you’re in the right place. As part of Hudson Discover, Facilities Tenders is one of 11 sector-specific portals.

These portals are designed to make the tendering process as easy as possible. As you may have found by now, it’s hard to find the perfect horticulture and landscaping tenders. Using a search engine such as Google will bring up countless results. It’ll be a challenge navigating so many sites. Plus, you’ll have to read lengthy tender documents to find out if the contract is suitable for you. This takes up a lot of time! But there are easier ways.

Our portals allow you to use filters to find select tenders that are suitable for your business. You can see tenders based on keywords, budget, location, and deadline. This way, you can instantly see if a contract is right for you.

Here’s some examples of the horticulture and landscaping tenders we source on our portals:

Rural Stirling H.A. Grounds Maintenance Framework 2022-2026

Rural Stirling Housing Association Ltd – Scotland – Budget: £150,000

Provision & Maintenance of Floral Arrangements

Neston Town Council – North West – Budget: £20,000

Pear Tree Fields Planting

Badsey & Aldington Parish Council – West Midlands – Budget: £40,000

Northern Boundary Tree Planting

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority – South East – Budget: £50,000

Grounds Maintenance for Poringland Parish Council

Poringland Parish Council – Eastern – Budget: £12,500

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tender opportunities – even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for garden maintenance tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities

How can you win horticulture and landscaping tenders?

To win horticulture and landscaping tenders, there are certain secrets you should know. We sat down with some professional Bid Writers from Hudson Succeed to see how they win tenders.

1. Don’t submit your proposal after the deadline

Deadlines for tenders are extremely strict. If you submit your bid even a minute late, you won’t be considered. It is best to use bid management skills to stay organised and on track with your bids. This way, you’ll avoid any last-minute delays and issues. These can be incredibly stressful and can cost you all your time and hard work! Don’t risk everything by being unprepared.

2. Don’t use technical jargon

The buyer will likely not be familiar with your industry. So, don’t use any technical jargon that they are unlikely to understand. This will confuse them, and they’ll not understand the important and useful parts of your proposal.

3. Stick to the word count

Part of writing a tender is showcasing that you can follow instructions and a brief. So, make sure you stick to any given word count for your answers. If you don’t, you are showing the buyer they cannot trust you to carry out tasks.

4. Make your proposal simple and easy to read

For our last tip on winning horticulture and landscaping tenders, make sure your bid is easy to read. The buyer doesn’t want to read a load of waffle about irrelevant points. They want you to answer their questions. Stick to this task and ensure it is easy to engage them. Otherwise, you’ll easily be forgotten and won’t stand out against competitors.

Summary

What are horticulture and landscaping tenders?

Horticulture and landscaping tenders are contracts which organisations can bid on to carry out certain works.

You can find opportunities via our Facilities Tenders portal.

How can you win horticulture and landscaping tenders?

Don’t submit your proposal after the deadline
Don’t use technical jargon
Stick to the word count
Make your proposal simple and easy to read.

Need assistance with bidding for horticulture and landscaping tenders? We can help with that too!

You may not have the time or resources in house to write a winning tender response in house. Outsourcing to tender writing specialists can help you secure your next contract.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, provide four levels of bid writing support services. Our Bid Writers have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re new to tendering or need your response proofread – we can help.

Tender Ready

Tender Ready is the perfect programme for those who are completely new to tendering. You’ll have access to an expert Bid Consultant to answer any questions that you may have.

Tender Improvement

If you have already been applying for tenders but aren’t seeing success our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Writers will go over your previous submissions and provide feedback and guidance.

Tender Writing

Have you found the perfect courier delivery contract for your business but are struggling to start? Send it over to our Bid Writing team and they can write the whole response for you. If you use our Tender Writing service, they’ll even submit it on your behalf!

Tender Mentor

Our Bid Writers can look over a bid response you’ve already written, checking it for errors before you submit. Sometimes you just need another pair of eyes to go over your response and our Tender Mentor service can help.

5 Things to Look for in Garden Maintenance Tenders

Posted on 27th July 2022 by John Hudson

What to look for in garden maintenance tenders

Are you trying to find garden maintenance tenders, but are not sure if the contract is right for you? Finding the right contract for your business can be tricky, especially if you’re new to the tendering process.

In this blog, we take a look at five things you should look for in tenders for garden maintenance services.

Have you got enough experience?

Before you start bidding for garden maintenance tenders, you should look at your experience. Usually, the buyer will expect to see at least two to three case studies from the past five years.

If you don’t meet this portion of the contract, then it’s probably not the right tender for you. Instead, you should choose contracts that you can offer relevant contract examples for.

Do you meet the financial standing?

When trying to choose garden maintenance tenders for your business, consider your financial standing. Do you meet the financial standing required to bid for the contract?

Generally, we would advise against tendering for contracts worth more than 50% of your annual turnover. So, for example, if your annual turnover is £200k, you shouldn’t tender for work worth more than £100k. This is to ensure that you’re actually able to deliver the contract successfully.

Can you offer something that your competition can’t?

You should also consider your unique selling points (USPs) when trying to choose tenders for your business. For example, are you offering something that your competitors aren’t?

If you find contracts that allow you to put forward your USPs, you stand an even greater chance of winning.

Will you need to outsource any work?

Another thing that you should consider is whether you’ll need to outsource any work. If the answer is ‘yes’, then how much will you need to outsource?

Generally, outsourcing over 50% of the work will require more explanation in your tender response. While your business can still bid for garden maintenance tenders successfully, the buyer will want to know more. For example, why should they choose your business over other suppliers?

Are you able to deliver the contract in practice?

Finally, you should think about whether you can actually deliver the contract in practice. For example, if you’re a small team, bidding for garden maintenance tenders for large, public gardens might not be feasible.

Likewise, if you’re based in London, bidding for contracts in Scotland might not be suitable for your business. Therefore, you should consider the logistics of the contract and make sure it’s realistic for you.

In summary

Are you trying to find garden maintenance tenders for your business? Here are five things you should consider when trying to choose the perfect contract:

Have you got enough experience?
Do you meet the financial standing?
Can you offer something that your competitors can’t?
Will you need to outsource any work?
Are you able to deliver the contract in practice?

Where to find garden maintenance tenders

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

Access to all exclusive, public, and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
An Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about garden maintenance tenders. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

Below are five garden maintenance tenders that we’ve previously sourced on the Facilities Tenders portal:

Homes England – Landscape Maintenance & Cleansing Contract 2022 – 20525

Homes England (The Name Adopted by the Homes & Communities Agency) – London – Budget: £80,000

Grounds Maintenance Services

Sheffield Hallam University – Yorkshire – Budget: £330,000

Verge Mowing Including Strimming Work

Carmarthenshire County Council – Wales – Budget: £1,000,000

Framework Agreement for the Provision of Grounds Maintenance & Grass Cutting Machinery

Education Authority NI – Northern Ireland – Budget: Undisclosed

Cemetery Grounds Maintenance 2022

Cork City Council – Republic of Ireland – Budget: Undisclosed

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Want to save even more time?

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities

Need assistance with bidding for garden maintenance tenders? We can help with that too!

You may not have the time or resources in house to write a winning tender response in house. Outsourcing to tender writing specialists can help you secure your next contract.

Tender Ready

Tender Ready is the perfect programme for those who are completely new to tendering. You’ll have access to an expert Bid Consultant to answer any questions that you may have.

Tender Improvement

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

7 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Winning Landscape Design Tenders

Posted on 8th July 20225th July 2022 by John Hudson

Have you been trying to win new landscape design tenders but not seeing results? Let us help!

When it comes to winning landscape design tenders, you may think you know how to write a winning response. But if you find yourself not getting the results you want, then you may need to rethink your tender processes.

We have gathered our six top tips on what you need to know to take your bid to the next level. Keep reading to find out more…

7 ways to improve your bid proposal when bidding for your next landscape design tender

Want to improve your chances of winning landscape design tenders? Then here are six tips to consider when writing your tender response:

Check you are eligible

Before you even begin to bid on a tender, you need to ensure you are in fact eligible. You don’t want to get half-way or all of the way through the process and find you can’t actually bid on the tender. Read through all of the tender documents carefully beforehand. Look for what the buyer is asking and if you can deliver this. Are there any accreditations you need? Is the buyer seeking something specific that is not included in your services? Is there a geographical range limit? Etc. Once you have read through everything carefully and have determined you are eligible, then start on your bid proposal.

Understand your potential customer

When bidding on new landscape design tenders, the buyer will lay out the specification within the tender documents. Use this to your advantage. Go through the tender specifications thoroughly to fully understand what they are looking for. You need to know exactly what they require, down to the last detail. This includes:

Design details
Pricing
Deadlines
Material supply.

You will then be able to cater your answers accordingly, highlighting points that will stand out to the buyer.

Create your proposal with design in mind

Once you have understood the buyer’s needs, the next step is to create your proposal.

When bidding for landscape design tenders, buyers will expect to see designs submitted as part of your proposal. These could be small, detailed drawings that will give insight into what the bigger design will look like. But potentially, they could ask for larger designs to be included also. They will want to see detailed specifications for each design. But also remember to design your whole proposal too. You are selling your landscape design services. Therefore, your design abilities should shine throughout your proposal. Unless stated otherwise, (i.e., a set bid design for submission) make your proposal look good to stand out.

Prove your expertise

You want to show the buyers what you are capable of. Having a good design proposal needs to be backed up by case studies. You can’t just tell the buyer that you’re good at landscape design, you need to show them. Try to include at least two to three case studies and a portfolio of your work. This will show them your worth. It is also good to include any certifications/accreditations at this point that will also work in your favour.

Site visits

What better way to understand the project specifications than with a site visit? With some landscape design tenders, the buyer may provide the opportunity to visit the site. Not only will this improve your knowledge of the specifications and the landscaping work. It also shows the buyer that you are a serious supplier to deal with. Showcasing that you know what you are talking about. Allowing you to assess the work effectively, to give a more accurate response on how you will deliver the project.

Quotes from suppliers & subcontractors

If you are a company that uses subcontractors to deliver the work, then ensure you have accurate information. You need to be able to include their costs within your proposed budget. But you also need to ensure they will deliver what you are asking. Promising the buyer work and not being able to deliver due to your contractors/subcontractors not delivering will reflect badly.

Check and check again

You should conduct final checks of your full tender submission. You don’t want to submit a bid proposal with typos, inaccurate information or incomplete designs. Be thorough with your proofing. It might even help to outsource bid support for this step, as a fresh pair of eyes can always help. You also need to ensure you are submitting your bid on time. Not meeting the submission deadline could show the buyer you’re unable to meet deadlines, which is not what you want.

Summary

If you’re looking to source new landscape design tenders, here are six tips to help you improve your bid response:

Check your eligibility
Understand your customer
Create your proposal with design in mind
Prove your expertise
Ask for a site visit
Ensure you get quotes from suppliers & subcontractors
Proofread your proposal thoroughly, then proof it again!

Need assistance when writing your next landscape design tender?

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, has over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. We offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more landscape design tenders. Whether you’ve never tendered before or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect tender for your business, why not send it over to us? Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The 4-week programme offers your business:

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
Access to our Global Bid Director and Senior Bid Writers
An organisation-wide Bid Library, including three case studies, 5 CVs and 8 policies.

Tender Improvement

If you’ve been tendering but aren’t seeing the results you want, our Tender Improvement package can help. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar, or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit it.

Looking to source new landscape design tenders?

Then look no further than Facilities Tenders!

By signing up to Facilities Tenders, you will get:

Access to all exclusive, public, and private sector opportunities within your industry.
An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about landscape design tenders. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

Here are just five past landscaping design tenders we have sourced on Facilities Tenders:

Design for Improvement, Supply & Fit – 4x Play Areas

Essex County Council – South East – Budget: £90,000

Urban Design (RIBA 3-5) Tender Forest Road Corridor E17 – Farnan Ave – Shernhall St

London Borough of Waltham Forest – London – Budget: £50,000

Landscape Design for AMIDS Core Site (Netherton Campus), Paisley

Renfrewshire Council – Scotland – Budget: £250,000

Southern Windermere Trail Section 2

Lake District National Park – North West – Budget: Undisclosed

Fellfoot Forward: Sharing Our Stories: Scheduled Monuments & Village Histories

Durham County Council – North East – Budget: Undisclosed

**Why not save even more time with Discover Elite?**

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Transport, for example.
A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

Join Facilities Tenders

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to see how you can grow your business and find new landscaping design tenders today!

How to Win Lawn Care Contracts up for Bid

Posted on 16th April 202112th July 2022 by John Hudson

Lawn care contracts up for bid: 3 steps to success

Have you been searching terms such as “how to win lawn care contracts up for bid?” Or “where to find lawn care contracts up for bid?” You aren’t the only one. Tendering for work can have many advantages for your business. There’s never been a better time to give it a go, particularly if you’re an SME. However, knowing how to win and where to find lawn care contracts up for bid can be daunting.

Before applying for any bid, you should consider the following questions after reading the tender specification:

Can I fulfil the work?
Do I hold and meet the necessary requirements?
Do I have enough experience?
Does my business meet the economic and financial standing?
Do I have the resources to carry out the contract?

These questions are a good place to start before beginning any bid response. They can help you establish if it’s the right opportunity for your business. You don’t want to waste resources starting a bid only to realise you don’t qualify on financial standing, for example.

Opportunities for SME’s

If you’re an SME, you may be wondering if you are in with a chance of winning lawn care contracts up for bid. A lot of SMEs think that tenders are given to larger businesses and corporations exclusively. However, this isn’t the case.

The UK government has implemented a scheme to see at least £1 in £3 being spent with SMEs by 2022. This means that public sector organisations are actively looking to award contracts to smaller businesses. Winning a contract, particularly if it’s a place on a framework agreement can be a lucrative opportunity for your business.

So, if you’ve never tendered before you may be wondering how to go about it. Generally speaking, there are three steps to winning lawn care contracts that come up for bid:

Knowing where to find lawn care contracts up for bid.
Competitively pricing your services.
Knowing how to write a high-quality bid response.

Let’s break these down.

Step 1: Where to find lawn care contracts up for bid

You may be wondering where you can find lawn contracts up for bid. There are hundreds of websites posting multi-sector tendering opportunities daily across the UK. Each may require a different login or password and keeping track can turn into a full-time job! Both the private and public sector release tenders in order to procure lawn care services.

You should be looking for a site that hosts industry-specific opportunities. Facilities Tenders is a centralised portal that hosts all facilities management tendering leads and opportunities. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes that can result in missed opportunities.

Our Opportunity Trackers manually source and upload exclusive, public and private sector opportunities from across the UK. You’re able to filter the results by keyword, location, budget and more. This allows you to find the perfect lawn care contracts up for bid for your company.

Below are previous lawn care contracts up for bid on our portal:

Provision of Weed Control Services

The London Borough of Barnet- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping and Grounds Maintenance – V2

Taff Housing Association- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Scottish Ambulance Service Grounds Maintenance

Scottish Ambulance Service- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

Framework – Provision of Garden Maintenance and Hedge Trimming Services – MTS

East Renfrewshire Council- Scotland- Budget: £105,000

Grounds Maintenance Services – North West Region

Salvation Army Housing Association- London- Budget: Undisclosed

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about lawn care contracts up for bid. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Step 2: Pricing your tender right

Pricing your bid right is an important aspect of any tender. You don’t want to undercut your competitors. Moreover, pricing your services too low may lead to a contractor questioning the legitimacy of your services.

The public sector has certain rules and regulations that it must follow to award a contract to a supplier. However, the private sector isn’t bound by such rules and can award a tender however they want. In this case, the cheapest bid may well win, but for the public sector, it won’t. Public sector organisations will award bids to the most economically advantageous tender, known as the MEAT.

The MEAT seeks to achieve the most value for money and added value from a bid proposal. This is because they need to ensure they are getting the most value for money out of the taxpayer’s money. A buyer will take into account a range of factors that will be specified in the tender documents. They’ll evaluate them both individually and in combination. They might include the following:

Accessibility
Technical ability
Ability to deliver on time
Innovation
Environmental considerations
Sustainability.

When applying for lawn care contracts up for bid in the public sector you need to consider social value. A tender will have a minimum weighting of 10% on social value, this could be more depending on the buyer. You will need to consider the environmental, social and economic aspects of the contract. Make sure you’re including promises you can keep, as social value is often contractually binding. It’s likely that lawn care contracts up for bid will have a particular focus on environmental aspects and considerations.

Examples of social values you could include in your lawn care contracts up for bid are:

COVID-19 recovery
Reducing waste and encouraging recycling
The eco-friendly and innovative products you use
Encouraging biodiversity and tackling carbon emissions
Upskilling
Paying staff the National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality
Equal opportunity and diversity policies
Apprenticeships or employing local labour to tackle unemployment.

Step 3: Write a high-quality response

Buyers will be expecting a high-quality written bid response. Even if the quality section of the tender is weighted less than cost. A business should aim to score as highly as possible across all aspects of the tender evaluation sections. You should aim for your responses to be clear and concise. Ultimately you want to be assertive in your writing, persuading the buyer that you’re the best business for the job.

Try and hit as close to the word or page count as possible with your written response. The word count will be detailed in the questions. If a buyer is expecting a 500-word response, simply responding with two sentences won’t suffice. Word and page counts are there for a reason. Clearly laying out your response will reflect strongly on you as a business. Using subheadings and bullet points can help break up your responses. A buyer will apricate this, particularly if there’s a high level of responders.

Pro-tip: Have a bank of evidence of previous contracts you have fulfilled. Buyers will ask for two to three case studies of completed contracts within the last three or five years. They should be similar in scope and complexity to the lawn care contracts that you’re applying for. You should consider:

Past contracts you have completed similar in scale and location.
How you mobilised and delivered the contract.
The challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.
Whether you completed the contract on time and within budget.

Need assistance when writing your next lawn care contract?

It’s understandable that you may not always have the resources, time or experience to write a winning response in-house. Outsourcing to bid writing experts can help you win your next tender, securing a pipeline of work for your business.

Our sister company Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more lawn care contracts up for bid. Whether you’ve never tendered before or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

A Tender Ready programme
The Tender Improvement package
Tender Writing services
Tender Mentor

Want to save even more time?

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

All of the above.
Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

How to Bid on Landscaping Jobs

Posted on 12th April 202112th July 2022 by John Hudson

5 things you can expect when you bid on landscaping jobs

So, you may be wondering how to bid on landscaping jobs, and you aren’t alone. Bidding on landscaping jobs can have advantages and enable you to secure a pipeline of work for your business. Landscaping tenders may be commissioned by both public and private organisations such as councils, private residences, universities and enterprises.

Commissioners may release tenders for landscaping services that cover a range of work such as:

Grounds maintenance
Grass cutting
Trimming hedges
Weed removal
Tree trimming
Debris removal
Tree stump removal.

If you’ve never tendered before, you may be confused about where to begin. Procurement methods can vary, and different buyers will ask for different things depending on their needs. Below are five things you can expect to be asked for when you bid on a landscaping job.

Health and safety policies

Health and safety is an important aspect of any tender, but particularly when operating equipment. Buyers want to be confident that your business works to the highest health and safety standards. You will also want to minimise the risk to your employees and the general public while carrying out a contract. In order to do this, you must exhibit best practice.

You may be asked to include a risk assessment in accordance with a copy of your health and safety policy. These could be:

CHAS
RIDDOR
A contingency plan that identifies and mitigates risks.

Method statement

A method statement will usually be required when applying to bid on landscaping jobs. The statement will need to detail the way in which the tasks will be completed. It should include a step-by-step guide on how to carry out the job safely. It may also need to include what controlled measures have been implemented to mitigate risks. Stating how employees carry out work in a safe manner to prevent injury to themselves or others is also crucial.

Typically, a method statement will include how your company handles:

Staff and training
Material handling
Preparation and induction
Welfare
Tools and electrical equipment
A full list of machinery to be used on the contract
PPE
First aid.

Site visits

It is likely that when you apply to bid on landscaping jobs you will be able to conduct a site visit. Depending on the buyer and the site, they may be optional or compulsory. However, it will be detailed within the tender documents. Site visits can be greatly beneficial to your bid response. They’re a great opportunity to go and see the proposed working environment for yourself.

It’s strongly advised that if there’s an option to conduct a site visit, that you participate. They allow you to gain an insight into the buyer, accessing information you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It may even result in you being able to price your services more accurately.

Relevant qualifications and accreditations

Buyers will often ask for you to attach relevant qualifications and accreditations for the job. This is because they want to be reassured that you have the ability and experience to undertake the work. Some relevant qualifications and accreditations may include:

ISO 9001; 14001; 18001
BALI (British Association of Landscape Industries)
RHS (Royal Horticulture Society) training
IoG (Institute of Groundsmanship)
Constructionline
SSIP.

Social value

When tendering for public sector contracts, there will be a section on social value. This is because the government have made a compulsory minimum weighting of 10% of social value within tenders. However, depending on the buyer, the weighting can be as large as 30%. This means it’s not something to disregard. Buyers will be expecting you to keep the promises you make in your tender proposal.

Social value is the social, economic and environmental aspects that you will take into account while delivering a contract. Your response should include how your business is:

Supporting COVID-19 recovery
Creating equal opportunities within the workplace
Creating jobs or upskilling through apprenticeships for local labour
Tackling climate change and reducing waste.

Due to the nature of landscaping jobs, there’ll likely be an increased focus on the environmental aspects of the contract. Buyers will likely want to know how you will be:

Managing waste
Reducing consumption
Increasing recycling
Encouraging biodiversity.

We can help you win your next bid on landscaping jobs

You may not have the time, resources or experience to bid on landscaping jobs. Outsourcing your next tender to bid writing experts can help get you on the path to success. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you land your next landscaping contract.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. Our Bid Writers will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The 4-week programme offers your business:

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Our Tender Improvement package can help if you’ve been tendering for work but aren’t seeing results. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect landscaping bid for your company, why not send it to Hudson Succeed? Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find landscaping jobs?

Now you know how to bid on landscaping jobs, you may be wondering where you can find them. There are thousands of websites across the UK that upload multi-industry opportunities. Each has a different portal, requires a different login or password, and can take hours out of your day.

Facilities Tenders is a time-saving tool that helps you optimise your search when you’re looking to bid on landscaping jobs.

We host all the live tendering opportunities within the facilities management industry. Our Opportunity Trackers source and upload exclusive, public and private sector opportunities from across the UK. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes! You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, allowing you to find the perfect landscaping tender for your company.

Below are previous landscaping tenders sourced on our portal:

Adam & Eve Hard Landscaping

University of Winchester- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Barcud – Landscaping 2021-2022

Barcud Cyf- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Land West of Woodhouse Lane, Hedge End: Construction of Natural Turf Sports Pitches, Footways and Landscaping

Eastleigh Borough Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping Project Phase 1 at St Peters Garden

Chalfont St Peter Parish Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping Services – Lot 3 Argyll and the Islands

Highlands and Islands Enterprise- Scotland- Budget: £101,250

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
An on-hand Account Manager available to answer any questions you may have about the tendering process in general.
A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for landscaping tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Construction, for example.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable facilities tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

All of the above.
Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

How to Prepare for Gritting Tenders

Posted on 5th April 202112th July 2022 by John Hudson

Gritting Tenders: 5 things to expect

Gritting tenders can be a competitive process in the lead up to winter. This is why you must be prepared in order to outshine your competitors when it comes to your bid response. Due to the nature of the British climate, gritting tenders are consistently published by private and public sector organisations.

You should make sure that you are well prepared for when gritting tenders are released. There are a number of ways you can do this. Knowing what to expect can help as well as having an organisation-wide bid library. This can help save you time when it comes to writing your bid response.

5 things you can expect to include in gritting tenders

A business continuity plan

Gritting tenders will often require potential suppliers to detail and business continuity plan. A bidder should maintain a detailed plan, which should be updated annually, including:

A disaster recovery plan
Recovery time objectives.

A business continuity plan should detail what provisions will be in place. It should plan to ensure consistency of supply in the event of:

Vehicle and/or equipment failure
Adverse weather conditions
Major road disruptions and fuel shortages
Industrial dispute/staff shortages
Receivership
Loss of information technology
Loss of premises.

It could also include, but shouldn’t be limited to the details of:

When and how the plan will be implemented
Safeguarding arrangements
Fallback contact details
Fallback relocation plans
Temporary arrangements
Arrangements for reviewing and modifying the contingency plan.

Qualifications and accreditations

Buyers will be expecting you to provide your business’s relevant qualifications and accreditations. They will expect you to keep up with best practice as gritting can be a dangerous job. A few examples that could be required is:

ISO 9001; 14001
OSHAS 18001
RIDDOR
Health and Safety Management policies
Risk assessment.

You will likely be asked to provide these as attached tender documents in the appendices.

References

Organisations commissioning gritting tenders will often require you to provide references of previous contracts you’ve worked on. A buyer may ask for up to three past case studies of contracts you’ve completed within the last five years. A question that’s asking for references may be phrased like this:

“Please provide details of 3 previous contracts which you have won. The details must be for like contracts with a duration of at least 12 months, if possible. If you are unable to provide details of contracts with a duration of at least 12 months, please provide details of your longest contracts.”

These case studies and references should be similar in scope and complexity, demonstrating your business’s capabilities.

Social value

If applying for gritting tenders in the public sector, you will need to consider your social value policies. There is now a mandatory minimum weighting of 10% within public sector tenders. This is because the government is obligated to take steps towards a more sustainable procurement practice.

You will need to consider the social, economic and environmental aspects of the contract. Buyers will be looking for suppliers that make promises they can keep. You could include social values such as:

Equal opportunity and diversity policies you implement to ensure a fair and diverse workplace.
COVID-19 recovery.
Environmental considerations such as reducing waste and tackling climate change.
Reduction of carbon emissions.
Employment of local labour to tackle unemployment.
Apprenticeships and encouragement of creating new skills.
Paying staff National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality.

Pricing

Gritting tenders are often assessed on three things:

Quality
Cost
Social value (for public sector organisations).

The weighting of all of the above can vary greatly depending on the buyer. Pricing your services correctly is important. You want to make sure that the price you submit is accurate and one you can keep. Buyers will likely expect the price you detail in your tender response to be fixed and final. You shouldn’t undercut the price of your services. It may result in the buyer questioning the legitimacy of your services.

Need help writing your next gritting tenders?

Buyers care about the quality of your written gritting tender response. You might not have the resources, experience or time to write a winning bid and that’s ok. The average bid response totals 6,000 words. You have enough on your plate as a business owner. Outsourcing your gritting tenders to a bid writing service can help you win more contracts whilst saving you time.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and boast an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win gritting tenders. Whether you aren’t seeing success from your tendering efforts, or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect gritting tender for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers will let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They can take care of the whole bid for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. This can save you time, allowing you to focus on delivering work.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who are completely new to tendering. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit. They’ll proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes.

Where can I find gritting tenders?

Finding the right gritting tender for your business can take hours out of your day. There are thousands of websites and portals that post tendering opportunities daily. Each may require you to have a different login and password from the next, it can turn into a full-time job. You would expect there to be a simple solution.

Enter…Facilities Tenders

Facilities Tenders is one easy-to-navigate, centralised portal that hosts all the live tenders from the facilities management industry. It’s a time-saving tool that can help streamline the tendering process. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload tenders from across the UK. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes! They post exclusive, public and private sector opportunities. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This helps you to find the perfect gritting tenders for your business.

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
A dedicated Account Manager that’s available to answer any questions you may have about gritting tenders. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

Below are previous gritting tenders sourced on our portal:

ID3715 Winter Maintenance — Stansted Airport

Stansted Airport Ltd- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Bulk Supply of De-icing Salt for Winter Road Surface Treatment

North Yorkshire County Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: £15,000,000

Grounds Maintenance including Winter Gritting

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Derbyshire- East Midlands- Budget: £650,000

Roads and Car Park Winter Gritting from 1st November 2020 to 30th April 2021/HMCD

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Provision of Winter Gritting Services

PD Teesport Limited- North East- Budget: £20,000

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Want to save even more time?

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

All of the above.
Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

A Beginner’s Guide to Securing Cemetery Contracts

Posted on 16th February 202112th July 2022 by John Hudson

Answers to your frequently asked questions about cemetery contracts

You might not think it, but cemetery contracts can be lucrative opportunities for a groundwork or construction business. Councils and the government are in constant need of cemetery maintenance, resulting in opportunities for cemetery contracts.

Cemetery contracts might cover a broad range of sub-sectors. These could include:

Landscaping services
Maintenance of graveyards
Restoration and renovation work
Grave digging
Civil engineering
Cemetery expansion
Fixing of memorial headstones

If you’re new to cemetery contracts, you might be wondering about the process. This blog will aim to answer some of your frequently asked questions.

What’s the difference between an open and closed tender?

The majority of cemetery contracts are open tenders. If a tender is open, it often means that it’s open to all qualified and interested bidders. If there is an open cemetery tender, then anyone can submit a response to the invitation to tender (ITT).

A closed tender is not open to everyone. Only specific parties will be invited to submit a final bid response. A closed tender gives buyers greater confidence that their requirements will be met. A closed tender may be an ITT that’s only accessible to those who have passed the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) stage. Closed tenders are more likely to be put out for contracts that have specialist or complex requirements.

What does an ITT involve?

An ITT is a formal document that is issued by a buyer that’s looking to procure works, goods, or services. It outlines the scope of the work that’s needed for the project. An ITT invites the potential supplier to submit a formal tender for work. It should outline how your organisation will deliver the project if successful and other things such as:

Your organisation’s general information
Insurance
Financial standing
Risk assessments
Method statements
Technical capacity
Health & safety procedures
Environmental and equality statements
Subcontractors

How are tenders for cemetery contracts evaluated?

An ITT is usually evaluated on two things: quality and price. The weightings for these can vary and you would need to adjust your response accordingly. Weightings can range from 50 – 50 to 80% quality and 20% price depending on the buyer’s needs.

It’s worth noting that for all central government contracts, there is now a mandatory 10% weighting on social value. Social value is included within your quality response and should take into account the social, environmental and economic aspects. For example:

The equal opportunity policies you implement.
How your organisation supports COVID-19 recovery.
Environmental considerations such as reducing and recycling waste.
How you are creating new skills or jobs to the local community.

The award criteria for cemetery contracts can vary. Some may be awarded to the lowest price, others to the most economically advantageous tender.

What is MEAT?

Often public sector tenders will award the contract to the MEAT. It’s worth noting, however, that the MEAT does not mean the cheapest bid wins. The MEAT allows the buyer to award the contract based on various aspects of the tender submission. These can include, but are not limited to:

Customer service
Innovation
Accessibility
Technical ability
Quality
Environmental benefits

Each of these aspects can be looked at by the procurer in a mix with other considerations, or independently.

What is my company’s economic and financial standing?

You may be asked for your company’s economical and financial standing when writing your tender response. Buyers need this information to see if your business can afford to fulfil the contract. If you’re wondering what that means, it is usually comprised of three things:

Annual turnover – You may need to attach your most recent audited accounts.
Financial ratios – You can find these in your account. They may include the ratio of your assets to liabilities. For example, acid tests and quick ratios.
Insurance – You will need to attach your insurance documents.

How can I work out if my turnover is good enough to apply for cemetery contracts?

While searching for the cemetery contract that’s right for your business, you might be wondering if your turnover is high enough. If the turnover threshold isn’t stated in the specification, don’t panic, there’s an easy way to estimate your eligibility. Generally, you should not tender for contracts with a value that is more than half your annual turnover.

For example, if you annually turn over £200k, we advise bidding for tenders with a maximum budget of £100k. This is because it’s generally ill-advised to bid for work that’s more than half your annual turnover. This is because they might not be able to deliver the contract’s requirements. For example, working across different geographical areas or they might not possess the number of staff required.

Do I need any specific accreditations and qualifications?

Specific qualification and accreditations that are needed should be mentioned in the specification. They vary from industry to industry, it depends on the works, goods or services that are being procured. Some of the basic qualifications and accreditations that are generally needed are:

ISO 9001; 14001; 18001; 27000
CHAS
RICS
RIDDOR
Constructionline

How long can cemetery contracts run for?

If your business secures a cemetery contract, it could place it in good stead for years. Some even offer the possibility of extension if the buyer is satisfied with your performance.

Contracts could be offered via framework agreements or Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS). These are a type of tendering contract. Tenders often focus on a single supplier delivering the service or goods. Frameworks aim to establish a multi-supplier agreement. These agreements often run over longer-terms – usually between 2 – 10 years.

Buyers release a framework opportunity and award places to the best suppliers. Goods and services that are on frameworks or DPSs are often divided into Lots. So, instead of delivering the whole contract, you only deliver your specific ‘lot’ or section.

Where can I find cemetery contracts?

Searching for cemetery contracts can take a large chunk out of your day. Especially when new opportunities are uploaded every day on multiple portals across the UK.

What makes the Facilities Tenders portal different?

We don’t rely on CPV codes. CPV codes can often be unreliable and mislabelled leading to missed opportunities if relying on them alone. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search through thousands of sources every day to bring you the most relevant contracts.

We then upload them to once, central, easy-to-navigate portal. You need not search for hours every day to find the perfect cemetery contracts for your business. You can search for opportunities and filter via keyword, budget or industry and more. We also uniquely offer account management and industry-specific portals that you don’t get anywhere else. Our portal is fully streamlined, allowing you time to focus on running your business.

Here are some past examples of cemetery contracts that were sourced on our Facilities Tenders portal:

Countesthorpe Cemetery – Re-instatement of Laid Down Memorials

Countesthorpe Parish Council- East Midlands- Budget: £26,000

28-01-2021

Oakwood Cemetery Paths

Maidstone Borough Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

12-11-2020

Glasnevin Cemetery Museum New Installation

Dublin Cemeteries Committee Glasnevin Trust- International- Budget: Undisclosed

01-12-2020

Highgate Cemetery Architectural Projects Competition – Stage 1

Highgate Cemetery- London- Budget: Undisclosed

20-01-2021

Highgate Cemetery Landscape Competition – Stage 1

Highgate Cemetery- London- Budget: Undisclosed

13-01-2021

Leek Old Cemetery – Boundary Wall Repair

High Peak BC & Staffordshire Moorlands DC- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

14-01-2021

Join Facilities Tenders

At Facilities Tenders, we source sector-specific tenders on a daily basis from thousands of buyers, across the UK.

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

What does a subscription to Facilities Tenders portal include?

A free, 20-minute phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert consultants will answer any questions or queries you may have about the tendering process. This could be about a certain requirement needed for cemetery contracts or any other question about the general process.
A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll answer any questions you may have about the portal or tendering.
Unlimited portal access. You can browse the Facilities Tenders portal to your heart’s content 24-hours a day if you wish. See the opportunities posted daily. They’re intuitively categorised and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin sent directly to your inbox. When you sign up, you can choose the specific areas in which you would like to tender. Then, a daily bulletin is created with all the relevant opportunities that have been posted that day. This makes things even easier, saving you more time so you can focus on the important things.

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

How can I write winning tenders for cemetery contracts?

If you’re at a loss about how to write tenders for cemetery contracts – we can help!

Bid writing services

Our Bid Writers at Hudson Succeed have over 50 years of experience across multiple industries and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing packages that cater to all your tendering needs. These are:

Tender Mentor

Our Bid Writers will look at a cemetery tender you’ve already written as part of the Tender Mentor service. They will notify you of any errors before you submit and provide you with some feedback.

Tender Writing

Have you found the perfect cemetery tender for your business, but are unsure of where to start? Tender Writing can help. If you send it over to them, they can take care of everything for you. They’ll even submit it on your behalf!

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement programme is for those who are tendering but aren’t seeing winning results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous cemetery tender responses and supporting documents. They’ll then provide you with guidance and recommendations on how to improve.

Tender Ready

The Tender Ready package is for those who have never tendered before. You’ll have access to an expert Bid Consultant to answer any questions that you may have. You’ll also get a year’s subscription to our Facilities Tenders portal.

Get in touch with one of our team today to find out how we can help your business grow!

5 Things to Think About When Applying for Grass Cutting Contracts

Posted on 12th February 202112th July 2022 by John Hudson

5 things to consider when looking for grass cutting contracts

The most common type of grass cutting contracts are within the public sector. You can often find hedge trimming and grass cutting contracts together as a subsection of grounds maintenance procurement. Councils are frequently looking for grounds maintenance suppliers, along with educational institutions and more.

Grass cutting contracts could be put out to tender for a number of works such as:

Road verges
Burial grounds
Parks
Sporting areas
Amenity spaces
Roadside sections of grass
Roundabouts

Typically, for grass cutting contracts, you will need to fill out a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). This is also known as a selection questionnaire (SQ). They will be the first hurdle when it comes to trying to secure a contract. In this stage, prospective suppliers will need to answer and fill out a standardised list of pass or fail questions. Once applicants have passed this stage, they’re then invited to tender (ITT).

An ITT can involve various different forms and questions on various subjects relating to the proposed project. Grass cutting contracts will likely include health and safety, contract management, business continuity and so on.

When applying for grass cutting contracts, there are five things to think about.

Remember the basics

When writing your grass cutting contracts, try to remember the basics for tendering:

Answer the question.
Be clear and concise.
Review your response.
Proofread and double-check your answers.
Submit in plenty of time.

These five bullet points are the fundamentals of writing a bid. Before you even begin, however, you should ask yourself the following:

Can I fulfil the work?
Do I have the necessary requirements?
Do I have enough experience?
Does my business meet the economic and financial thresholds?

These four questions are a good place to start before completing any tender. They’ll help you establish if it is the right opportunity for your business and make your bid or no-bid decision.

Health and Safety

Health and Safety are important aspects to consider with any tender, but particularly grass cutting contracts. Buyers want to be confident that the work carried out on their sites is to the highest standards.

You may be asked what risk assessment practices and health and safety measure you have in place. These could be:

RIDDOR
CHAS

Pricing

Grass cutting contracts have been known to have a greater weighting on pricing than quality. You’ll want to make sure to price your services competitively. Although, bear in mind that the cheapest bid doesn’t necessarily win. Particularly in public procurement, where the contract will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT).

Public organisations want suppliers to detail their policies, internal procedures and accreditations to allow them to make an informed decision. They want to know which supplier offers the best value of money. MEAT means the buyer is looking at more than just the price. The contractor could be looking for accessibility, ability to deliver on time, innovation and more.

It’s best to read the buyers requirements in detail and carefully construct answers accordingly. The tendering documents will note the requirements you need to fulfil the contract. As a prospective supplier, you should read the requirements and answer accordingly.

Case studies

When you’re competing for grass cutting contracts, a buyer will likely ask you for up to three case studies. These need to be past examples of work that you have completed to a similar scope. Typically, they will be to have been within the last five years.

You should get in touch with your previous clients and ask for testimonials that support the work you carried out. This will strengthen your proposal and reassure the buyer of your quality and that you can be trusted.

A pro tip is to use the STAR format when detailing your case studies for grass cutting contracts. Clearly outline the:

Situation – brief context
Task – the work you faced
Action – what you’ve done
Results – what the result were

Social value

Social value now has a 10% minimum weighting on all public sector tenders. It’s a new procurement model that is used by government bodies to assess the social impact of suppliers. Its new compulsory weighting came in to place in January 2021. It assesses the economic, social and environmental benefits that a company can do if successful with the tender.

Government departments will use the new model to score potential suppliers when evaluating their tender responses. This scoring focuses on the wider, positive impact that businesses provide when delivering the contract. This means more value for money for the UK taxpayer. Below are some examples of social value promises a business could bring to the local community.

How your company supports COVID-19 recovery.
Charitable donations.
Encouraging older people to remain active within their communities or employment.
Creating opportunities to develop volunteering groups.
Creating skills and training opportunities.
Recruiting locally.
Promoting and supporting local businesses.
Paying the UK Living Wage.
Improving market diversity.
Creating training and employment opportunities for school children, young adults and the long-term unemployed.
Equal opportunity policies your business implements and adheres to.
The environmental considerations you take place to help fight climate change.
Reducing waste and increase waste recovery and recycling.
Protecting the environment for future generations.

Consistency is key to ensuring equal opportunities for suppliers. Therefore, a focus will be on the implementation of the new model to derive the maximum social value from contracts.

It’s worth putting the time and effort into figuring out the social value promises that your company can deliver. To further stand out from the crowd, you could research the buyer’s social value promises. You could then demonstrate how you are able to help fulfil their promises.

Where to find grass cutting contracts

At Hudson, we’re experts in the tendering process. Facilities Tenders is one of Hudson Discover’s 11 tendering portals. They can save you time when sourcing relevant grass cutting contracts for your business. This allows you to spend more time on the important things, such as running your business.

Use a sector-specific portal with a variety of opportunities

We understand how tricky the procurement world can be if you’re new. By using one portal that sources unique, public and private sector opportunities, you can save precious hours of your day. It can be very time-consuming trawling hundreds of sites a day to find a contract that’s perfect for your business. Especially if they’re registered with CPV codes which are known for being unreliable.

Our Opportunity Trackers manually upload and source contracts for our clients. They search thousands of sources a day, uploading them to our portals. You can then filter these opportunities via keyword, location, budget and more.

Join Facilities Tenders

If you’re looking for grass cutting contracts, Facilities Tenders will save you time and get you results.

When you sign up, you’ll receive an email bulletin when new grass cutting contracts are published, plus 24-hour portal access. You can browse all the available tenders, large and small, as often as you like! You’ll even get a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help answer any questions you may have.

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Below are some past grass cutting contracts we’ve sourced on the Facilities Tenders portal:

Amenity Grass Cutting at selected sites throughout Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire County Council- Wales- Budget: £1,000,000

08-01-2021

BTC Invitation to Tender Grass Cutting

Barton Town Council- East Midlands- Budget: £30,000

15-01-2021

Bar Hill Village Grass Cutting Contract 2021 – 2023

Bar Hill Parish Council- Eastern- Budget: £57,000

20-01-2021

Grass Cutting – North West England

Forestry Commission- North West- Budget: £315,000

11-01-2021

Grass Cutting and Landscape Maintenance Contract

Hjaltland Housing Association Ltd- Scotland- Budget: £105,000

15-01-2021

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Bid writing support

Once you’ve found a grass cutting contract that you want to go for, but don’t know where to start – we can help! Here at Hudson, we know how to make your business stand out from the over-saturated marketplace.

We offer bid writing services that can help you with your next grass cutting contract. Our team of Bid Writers have over 50 years of bidding experience and an 87% success rate. We have four bid writing support packages to help you gain success in your tendering efforts:

Tender Mentor

Our Tender Mentor service can help make sure your bid is the best it can possibly be. Our Bid Writers can provide feedback on a grass cutting tender you’ve already written. They’ll point out any errors before you submit.

Tender Writing

Simply send us the bid specification you want to go for and our Bid Writers will write the whole thing for you. They’ll let you know how long it’ll take and if they need anything further from you. They’ll even submit it on your behalf! This service is priced per bid, and we’ll provide you with a full tender writing breakdown.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement is perfect for those who are already tendering but aren’t seeing success from their efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous bid responses and work with you to develop winning content. If you select this service, you’ll receive the following and more:

A 12-month subscription to our Facilities Tenders portal.
Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding Professionals.
A dedicated Bid Consultant with the programme lasting up to three months.

Tender Ready

The Tender Ready package if for those businesses who are completely new to the tendering process. We can help you every step of the way. We offer a three-stage process over four weeks. We’ll help you develop a bid library and give guidance on how to increase your quality and tender competitiveness. You’ll also receive:

Three days Bid Consultancy support towards one tender, private sector proposal or public sector framework.
A bespoke proposal covering 5,000 words of responses accustomed to your company.
Three days Bid Consultancy support, coaching and training with Hudson’s senior team.
And more!

Get in touch today to find out how we can help your business grow!

How to Succeed in Writing Grounds Maintenance Contracts

Posted on 3rd February 202113th July 2022 by John Hudson

Everything you need to know to win grounds maintenance contracts

Grounds maintenance contracts are a great way to secure a long-term pipeline of work. Grounds maintenance is a service that is often regularly outsourced by both private and public organisations. This generally means there is a constant stream of contract opportunities.

Grounds maintenance contracts are often commissioned for both labour and grounds maintenance equipment. Contracts could include lawn care, hedge trimming, weed control and more. No two businesses will have the same needs. It’s vital that when writing your grounds maintenance contracts, you customise your response to the needs of the buyer.

Opportunities for SME’s

If you’re an SME who’s new to the tendering world, it can be tricky to know where to even begin. You might be wondering if there’s any point in applying for contracts when there are larger businesses out there. You shouldn’t be disheartened by this.

The UK government has implemented a scheme to award more work to SMEs. They have a target to see at least £1 in £3 being spent with SMEs. This means that public sector organisations are actively looking to award contracts to smaller businesses. This is great news, and it can be a lucrative opportunity if you’re able to secure a contract. Some grounds maintenance contracts last for several years at a time with the possibility of extension.

Below are some helpful tips on the types of things that are required for grounds maintenance contracts.

Health and Safety

Health and safety are important aspects to consider within any tender. Buyers want to be confident that the work on their site is to the highest health and safety standards. You, no doubt, want to minimise the risk to your employees and the general public when working.

You may be asked what risk assessment practices and health and safety measures you have in place. These could be via:

CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme)
RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations)

Method statements

A method statement is a critical part of all grounds maintenance contracts. This is used to detail the way a task is to be completed. It should outline the hazards involved and include a step-by-step guide on how to do the job safely. Your statement should detail what controlled measures have been implemented to ensure the safety of all involved in the task. It must state how employees carry out work in a safe manner to prevent injury to themselves or others.

You will need to include a full list of machinery and equipment to be used within the contract. For example:

Hedge cutters
Lawn mowers
Leaf blowers
Fork
Blowers
Ladders.

Method statements may include how your organisation handles:

First aid
Manual handling
Material handling
Preparation and induction
Staff and training
Tools and electrical equipment
Welfare
Noise
Vibration
PPE.

Method statements allow you to detail how thorough your business is. It allows you the opportunity to prove why you are the best for the job. You need to demonstrate how you are better than your competitors when carrying out each task.

Qualifications and accreditations

Your businesses’ qualifications and accreditations are highly relevant. You need to be able to demonstrate that you are qualified to undertake grounds maintenance contracts. Below are some of the general and industry specific qualifications and accreditations you may need:

ISO 9001; 14001; 18001
CHAS
BALI (British Association of Landscape Industries) accreditation
RHS (Royal Horticulture Society) training
IoG (Institute of Groundsmanship)
Constructionline
SSIP.

Case Studies

There’s a great deal of healthy competition when applying for grounds maintenance contracts. Due to this, your level of experience and business capabilities matter. You don’t want to waste resources and time on tenders that your organisation has no chance of winning.

Generally speaking, you will always be required to provide up to three case studies of relevant completed contracts. If you can show a proven track record of projects of a similar stature, it’s a better indicator of capability. You should keep it relevant and include past work that is similar in scale, or geographical location.

You should include past case studies over the last five years, no later. When detailing previous case studies, it would also be a good idea to state any challenges you overcame. This enables you to demonstrate that you have taken the initiative to predict potential challenges and planned ahead.

Social Value

Social value is ever important. UK government contracts now carry a compulsory 10% minimum weighting on social value. On some contracts, social value can be weighted up to 30% within the quality response. Contractors want to know what steps your organisation is taking to think beyond your own internal objectives. Public sector organisations want you to demonstrate that you’re committed to a sustainable future. Businesses will be impressed if your responses align with their own social value goals.

Social value in tender responses will be assessed on:

How your organisation supports COVID-19 recovery.
The equal opportunity policies you implement within your business.
How you are creating new jobs, skills to tackle economic inequality. You could do this via apprenticeships or workplace training, for example.
The environmental considerations you are taking to reduce waste and tackle climate change.

As grounds maintenance is based within the natural environment, you will need to demonstrate you have robust environmental awareness. This could include your commitment to using environmentally friendly consumables or strict waste management procedures for example. Can you provide evidence to support these claims? You could try to calculate the specific environmental impacts of your service for the buyer. For example, how much less waste will go to landfill than your potential competitors?

Ultimately, your business should be committed to reducing any negative environmental impact. This could be done via:

Reducing consumption
Increasing recycling
Reconsidering how you manage activities
Encouraging biodiversity.

Innovation

Contractors are looking for suppliers to deliver a better service to both themselves and their customers. Most grounds maintenance contracts will include questions for suppliers to demonstrate innovative solutions to everyday problems. They want to know what improvements you can deliver over the contract term. You will want to show supporting evidence of how your innovative methods have been used to save previous clients’ money. You could also state how such innovative solutions have delivered better quality.

Such increased interest in innovation and sustainability coincides with the increase of interest in social value. For example, some businesses have invested in battery powered equipment over petrol/diesel machinery in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions.

Landscaping contracts

If you’re bidding on grounds maintenance contracts, you may specialise in landscaping. You may be wondering how to bid on landscaping jobs, and you aren’t alone. Bidding on landscaping jobs can have advantages and enable you to secure a pipeline of work for your business.

Buyers may release tenders for landscaping services that cover a range of work such as:

Grounds maintenance
Grass cutting
Trimming hedges
Weed removal
Tree trimming
Debris removal
Tree stump removal.

If you’ve never tendered before, you may be confused about where to begin. Procurement methods can vary, and different buyers will ask for different things depending on their needs.

It is likely that to bid on landscaping jobs, you will need to detail the same information above. This includes your business’:

Health and safety policies and procedures
Method statements
Relevant qualifications and accreditations
Social value responses

Below are some more things that you can expect to see when you bid on landscaping jobs:

Site visits

When you bid on landscaping jobs, you may have the opportunity to conduct a site visit. Depending on the buyer and the site, they may be optional or compulsory. However, it will be detailed within the tender documents. Site visits can be greatly beneficial to your bid response. They’re a great opportunity to go and see the proposed working environment for yourself.

Framework agreements

One thing that you can expect when you bid on landscaping jobs is that it is part of a wider framework agreement.

A framework agreement is a multi-supplier agreement used by the public sector to procure a range of goods and services. They are frequently used within the grounds maintenance sector. The length of a framework can vary from a few months, but landscaping frameworks more often run for years. Due to this, securing a place on a framework agreement can be a lucrative opportunity for your business.

Framework agreements are split into different lots. Each lot can either be a specific good, service, work or geographical location. They allow suppliers to apply to be part of a wider contract without needing to supply all areas. The number of suppliers for each lot varies and can be anything from four suppliers for one lot to ten. Suppliers need only apply for the specific lot[s] they specialise in.

Depending on the buyer, suppliers may be able to bid on any or all of the framework lots available. This will be stated within the tender documents and tender specification released by the buyer. If this is an option, a supplier must be able to demonstrate that they’re able to undertake all works. They must have the appropriate capacity and resources to undertake the works across all selected respective lots.

A higher weighting on price

When you bid on landscaping jobs, it’s not unexpected for the price to be weighted more than quality. However, that doesn’t mean a buyer doesn’t care about the quality of your response. In fact, it means quite the opposite. You should always put your all into your quality response when you bid on landscaping jobs.

Remember:

Hit as close to the word/page/character count as possible

It’s there for a reason. If a buyer is expecting a 1,000-word response, simply writing 200 words won’t suffice. The same applies to writing a 1,500-word response. Follow the instructions given.

Avoid overly technical jargon

A lot of the time, a buyer isn’t an expert in your area, hence why they’re outsourcing for a solution. They won’t necessarily understand what you’re talking about. So, using laymen’s terms is the way forward.

Be detailed in your response

The devil is in the detail. Buyers are often expecting you to break down your answer and have detailed responses. The best tender responses will include a step-by-step response if they’re asking how you do a certain process. The more in-depth the better (within the word/page/character count).

Break up the text format

If a question is asking three things within it, break it up. Make the main points subheadings. This will help both you and the evaluator to signpost you have answered every aspect of the question. Put yourself in the evaluator’s shoes. If you’re confronted with pages of block text you aren’t going to favour it over one that’s broken up. Using bullet points, subheadings, tables and graphs can help.

Stick to the guidelines

Make sure you’re adhering to the formatting guidelines within the specification. Contracting authorities can be very strict with this. To avoid being rejected over a small matter, read the specification carefully. Before you submit, make sure you have the correct font, size of the font and anything else they note.

If you follow this advice, you’ll be well on your way to securing your next landscaping job. If you need any support writing your next bid for landscaping jobs – we can help.

Bid Writing Support

Are you new to tendering? Do you struggle to see success from your tendering efforts? If you answered yes to either of the above questions, then you may be interested in our bid writing service.

Our Bid Writers have an 87% success rate. They have over 60 years of experience and are more than happy to help you with your grounds maintenance contacts. Whether you’re a first-time tenderer, or simply need advice on improving your success rate – we can help. We offer four bid writing packages:

Tender Ready

The Tender Ready programme takes place over 4-weeks. It’s perfect for those who are completely new to the tendering process. Our Bid Writers will help you with your corporate literature and identifying opportunities.

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package is for businesses that aren’t seeing success from their tendering applications. Our Bid Writers will assess a tender you’ve written and work with you to improve the content.

Tender Writing

Simply send the tender specification to our Bid Writers. They’ll write the responses and even submit it on your behalf leaving you time to focus on your business.

Tender Mentor

Our Bid Writing Team will analyse your grounds maintenance contract. Through Tender Mentor, they’ll then give you guidance and feedback noting any errors before you submit.

Where can I find grounds maintenance contracts?

So, you’ve taken all of the above into consideration. Now is the perfect time to start searching for grounds maintenance contracts. We get that you’re busy. You don’t want to be searching through thousands of different websites to find a suitable opportunity. That’s where we come in!

Our goal is to save you both time and money. We do this by manually searching for new business opportunities for you. We then publish them all on our sector-specific Facilities Tenders portal.

You can search for new opportunities via keyword, location or budget. This means you don’t have to rely on incorrectly labelled CPV codes. This allows you to access all private and public grounds maintenance contracts easily.

We’ll even send you daily alerts when new grounds maintenance contracts are released. You’ll have 24-hour access to the portal and a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help.

Below are some past examples of ground maintenance contracts and landscaping jobs we’ve sourced on our portal:

GB-Consett: Landscaping and Grounds Maintenance

Durham Aged Mineworkers Homes Association- North East- Budget: £500,000

06-01-2021

Grounds Maintenance Service

NHS Golden Jubilee- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

22-01-2021

Leaseholder Grounds Maintenance

Accent Housing- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

19-01-2021

Pickering & Ferens Homes – Grounds Maintenance

Pickering & Ferens Homes- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

18-01-2021

Grass Cutting and Landscape Maintenance Contract

Hjaltland Housing Association Ltd- Scotland- Budget: £105,000

15-01-2021

Adam & Eve Hard Landscaping

University of Winchester- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Barcud – Landscaping 2021-2022

Barcud Cyf- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Land West of Woodhouse Lane, Hedge End: Construction of Natural Turf Sports Pitches, Footways and Landscaping

Eastleigh Borough Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping Project Phase 1 at St Peter’s Garden

Chalfont St Peter Parish Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping Services – Lot 3 Argyll and the Islands

Highlands and Islands Enterprise- Scotland- Budget: £101,250

Join Facilities Tenders

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

THE £12BN CLEAN UP

Posted on 2nd February 201814th February 2022 by John Hudson

THE £12BN CLEAN UP – Commercial Cleaning Contracts

This is the moment a lot of cleaning companies have been waiting for! A large Commercial Cleaning Contract.

The government has announced ‘a £12bn tender for cleaning and maintenance services at schools, hospitals and in other public buildings’.

The folks at Cleaning Matters has stated that the ‘move comes in the wake of Carillion’s collapse’ and will also help support the 2020 SME initiative, where 1 in 3 pounds will be spent with Small, Medium Enterprises.

Due to the recent Carillion crash, this has led to one of the biggest Facilities Management frameworks we’ve seen in a long while.

‘There are concerns that managing so many different suppliers would be a nightmare for the civil service, who have struggled to oversee outsourced work in the past’.

independent aspects of Commercial cleaning contract management

One thing that will undoubtedly be asked via tenders is the independent aspects of contract management. We advise all cleaning companies to get ahead, act fast and ask themselves to why they should be chosen and what makes them stand out in such a competitive market?

This will make sure you have the functions readily available to put across in your tender submissions.

If you need extra help, we offer a Tender Mentor service where we can guide and review your tender submissions for as little as £295+VAT.

Get in touch to get a part of the action and win various national contracts, with a value range from £500 to £1.4bn.

Below are some cleaning tenders previously sourced on our Facilities Tenders portal:

Cleaning Tender – Bolder Academy – New School Site – Isleworth

Bolder Academy- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Cleaning Tender, Bishop Stopford School, Kettering

Bishop Stopford School- South East- Budget: £100,000

Cleaning and Caretaking Services Framework for Schools and Corporate Properties

Gloucestershire County Council- South West- Budget: £17,040,341

Derby Cathedral School Cleaning

Derby Cathedral School- East Midlands- Budget: £725,000

For the Provision of Cleaning Services at Myddelton House

Lee Valley Regional Park Authority- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Join Facilities Tenders

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Looking for tips on finding and winning horticulture and landscaping tenders? Here’s 4 secrets from the experts!

What are horticulture and landscaping tenders?

Where can you find horticulture and landscaping tenders?

Here’s some examples of the horticulture and landscaping tenders we source on our portals:

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Want to save even more time?

How can you win horticulture and landscaping tenders?

1. Don’t submit your proposal after the deadline

2. Don’t use technical jargon

3. Stick to the word count

4. Make your proposal simple and easy to read

Summary

What to look for in garden maintenance tenders

Have you got enough experience?

Do you meet the financial standing?

Can you offer something that your competition can’t?

Will you need to outsource any work?

Are you able to deliver the contract in practice?

In summary

Where to find garden maintenance tenders

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

Below are five garden maintenance tenders that we’ve previously sourced on the Facilities Tenders portal:

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

Want to save even more time?

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

Need assistance with bidding for garden maintenance tenders? We can help with that too!

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Have you been trying to win new landscape design tenders but not seeing results? Let us help!

7 ways to improve your bid proposal when bidding for your next landscape design tender

Check you are eligible

Understand your potential customer

Create your proposal with design in mind

Prove your expertise

Site visits

Quotes from suppliers & subcontractors

Summary

Need assistance when writing your next landscape design tender?

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

Looking to source new landscape design tenders?

Here are just five past landscaping design tenders we have sourced on Facilities Tenders:

Why not save even more time with Discover Elite?

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

Join Facilities Tenders

Lawn care contracts up for bid: 3 steps to success

Opportunities for SME’s

Step 1: Where to find lawn care contracts up for bid

Below are previous lawn care contracts up for bid on our portal:

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

Step 2: Pricing your tender right

Examples of social values you could include in your lawn care contracts up for bid are:

Step 3: Write a high-quality response

Need assistance when writing your next lawn care contract?

Want to save even more time?

5 things you can expect when you bid on landscaping jobs

Health and safety policies

Method statement

Site visits

Relevant qualifications and accreditations

Social value

We can help you win your next bid on landscaping jobs

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Where can I find landscaping jobs?

Below are previous landscaping tenders sourced on our portal:

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

Want to save even more time?

Gritting Tenders: 5 things to expect

5 things you can expect to include in gritting tenders

A business continuity plan

Qualifications and accreditations

References

Social value

**Why not save even more time with Discover Elite?**