ASW is a group of 11 not-for-profit housing organisations, including us, working together to reduce procurement costs. ASW expects to replace almost 8,500 kitchens over the next four years as part of this.
Included in the plan are kitchen replacement projects, together with responsive and new build requirements. This is the biggest product group by spend. A kitchen tender e-auction was held recently at Tor Homes’ offices in Totnes. The e-auction was managed by Trading Partners, specialists in procurement e-auctions, reducing clients’ costs of externally purchased goods and services.
This event was well attended by representatives across the 11 housing company members of ASW. The results will be published after the official award of the contract, scheduled for the end of November.
In the summer tenants’ representatives had the opportunity to view and access the products from each company. Tor Homes tenants representative and technical forum member, Marc Brook said he was really pleased to have been able to attend the kitchen exhibition.
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Marc says, “I wondered at first if we would have as much input as we were told to expect. Yet I have been so pleased to see that our experiences have been matched with our expectations. It’s so exciting that we are being involved in this selection process. I have really valued having a say in the products that will be entering residents homes. Through ASW we are able to obtain a higher quality product through increased purchasing power. “
ASW Procurement Manager, Neil Biddiscombe says, “Selecting suppliers through this process has worked really well for us.” ASW is also going through the same tender process for the replacement of approximately 6,000 bathrooms over the next four years.
“The e-auction is a reverse auction which opens up more competition, but also provides increased visibility and is arguably fairer for suppliers,” says Neil.
A contract has also already been awarded to Vado-UK to supply the kitchen and bathroom taps. Vado-UK National Sales Manager, Dean Pamphilon says,
"It's a great idea for housing associations to work together to arrange contracts. Because it is a big contract, Vado-UK have been prepared to offer our taps at a lower price than the ASW partners would have been able to achieve on their own. ASW partners can buy taps that the tenants and maintenance managers like, with backup service and support that meets all requirements.
Dean also comments on Vado-UK’s experience of working on this tender, “The project was well run. It was clear at all stages what we were required to do, and we were delighted that the tenants representatives ranked our products the highest when they viewed them."
Watch this space for more details of the kitchen and bathroom contracts…..
