---
title: "CAT-20-013 Pre-Prepared Meals"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-02de1f"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02de1f"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02de1f.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02de1f.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "EDUCATION AUTHORITY NI"
published: "2022-10-12"
---

# CAT-20-013 Pre-Prepared Meals

Buyer: EDUCATION AUTHORITY NI  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-02de1f

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## Summary

The Education Authority Northern Ireland has recently awarded a contract for the supply and delivery of pre-prepared meals for individual school kitchens throughout Northern Ireland. This contract, titled "CAT-20-013 Pre-Prepared Meals," was awarded to Early Days Foods Ltd. The buying organisation is the Education Authority NI, located in Armagh, UK. The procurement process has reached the award stage as of 2022-09-01, with a contract value of GBP 148,960. The industry category is goods, and the main procurement method was a negotiated procedure without prior publication.

This procurement opportunity offers business growth potential for suppliers of pre-prepared meals, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food industry. The procurement stage for this opportunity is at the award phase, providing a chance for businesses to secure contracts with public sector entities. Businesses with expertise in providing food services to school meal kitchens in Northern Ireland would be well-suited to compete. Key dates to note are the contract award date on 2022-09-01 and the contact deadline on 2022-09-01.

## Notice

As stated in the Contract Notice (2021/S000-026548) and Contract Award Notice (2021/S000-030529) this agreement is for "the Supply and Delivery of Pre-Prepared Meals to individual school Meals kitchens throughout Northern Ireland for the period ending 30th November 2022 (with an option to extend for up to a further period of 12 months) on a call-off as required basis"

### Lot Information

Lot 1

As stated in the Contract Notice (2021/S000-026548) and Contract Award Notice (2021/S000-030529) this agreement is for "the Supply and Delivery of Pre-Prepared Meals to individual school Meals kitchens throughout Northern Ireland for the period ending 30th November 2022 (with an option to extend for up to a further period of 12 months) on a call-off as required basis"

Options: An option to extend for up to a further period of 12 months

### Procurement Information

The purpose of this VEAT notice is to inform and provide prior notice to the market that the Authority intends to modify its Framework Agreement (CAT-20-013) for the Supply and Delivery of Pre-Prepared Meals. Following publication of this VEAT Notice, the Authority will observe a 10 day standstill which will conclude at midnight on 15 September 2022. This opportunity / Framework Agreement was originally advertised in a Contract Notice (2021/S 000-026548) dated 22 October 2021. A Contract Award Notice (2021/S 000-030529) was also subsequently published on 8 December 2021. The requirement has arisen to modify the value of this Framework Agreement due to an unforeseen increase in demand for pre-prepared meals during the prolonged Covid pandemic and its consequent impact on staff within the catering service. This modification will allow for the continuation of the contract whilst the Authority embarks on a new procurement exercise. The Authority intends to run a new tender process in order to replace this current Framework Agreement. It is anticipated that a replacement will commence in early 2023. The modification to the value of this Framework Agreement provides an interim solution to ensure contractual coverage for school meals kitchens until the new Framework Agreement commences. This is the first modification to this Framework Agreement. It is estimated that the total value of this modification shall be less than 50% of the original contract value. The original contract value was published as PS100,000 and the proposed modification will increase the total contract value to PS148,960. The modification is proposed in accordance with Regulation 72 (1) (c) and will comply with each of the following conditions pertaining to this regulation as outlined below: (i) the need for modification has been brought about by circumstances which a diligent contracting authority could not have foreseen i.e. the requirement from catering has been in excess of estimated requirements at the time of tendering and this has been due to the absence of staff due to the prolonged Covid pandemic as well as the change in the labour market causing an increased rate of staff turnover. Furthermore, the catering service is facing significant challenges in recruiting suitable staff for a number of school kitchens; it is therefore recognised that there will be a need for increased spend via this contract which could not be foreseen at the time of advertising the original contract. (ii) the modification does not alter the overall nature of the contract (the scope will remain the same); (iii) the value of the modification does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract (value of proposed modification is 50% of the original contact value). The modification to the Framework is therefore compliant with EU procurement legislation.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/028634-2022 |
| Notice type | Planning Notice |
| Procurement type | Framework |
| Procurement category | Goods |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Negotiated without publication of a contract notice |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Planning, Tender, Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 12 Oct 2022 |
| Submission deadline | 9 Nov 2021 |
| Future notice date | 27 Sep 2021 |
| Award date | 7 Dec 2021 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | £100,000 |
| Lots value | £100,000 |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £248,960 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | EDUCATION AUTHORITY NI |
| Locality | ARMAGH |
| Post town | Northern Ireland |
| Postcode | BT61 9AX |
| Country | Northern Ireland |
| ITL 1 | TLN Northern Ireland |
| ITL 2 | TLN0 Northern Ireland |
| ITL 3 | TLN07 Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon |
| Local authority | Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon |
| Electoral ward | The Mall |
| Westminster constituency | Newry and Armagh |
| Delivery location | TLN Northern Ireland, TLN0 Northern Ireland |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 2 |
| Supplier names | EARLY DAYS FOOD; EARLY DAYS FOODS |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 15 - Food, beverages, tobacco and related products

### Codes

- 15894200 - Prepared meals

## Release History

- 12 Oct 2022 at 08:36 - AwardUpdate - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/028634-2022
- 1 Sep 2022 at 11:42 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/024429-2022
- 8 Dec 2021 at 14:24 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/030529-2021
- 22 Oct 2021 at 14:54 - Tender - Tender Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/026548-2021
- 7 Sep 2021 at 16:24 - Planning - Planning Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/022192-2021

## Notice URLs

- https://earlydaysfoods.com/
- https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
- https://www.etendersni.gov.uk

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02de1f. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02de1f.json.