Work through a realistic tender — Food & catering

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to defend a bid decision and prepare a consistent submission.

Common to all countries

Make a decision that survives delivery

A bid review has three separate gates: admissibility, a credible route to a competitive score, and the ability to deliver at an acceptable return. A high score cannot cure an inadmissible offer; a technically possible offer can still be commercially unsound. Give each unresolved issue an owner and a decision deadline before the submission cut-off.

Assemble the final response from the controlled requirements and evidence registers. Check names, totals, document versions, signatures, portal fields and uploaded files. Use an independent read-through to find contradictions between the method, staffing and price. After a permitted test of the submission workflow, allow time for the actual upload and retain the receipt. A finished PDF on your computer is not a submitted offer.

Worked example — Supply lunches to three schools

This is a fictional teaching case. Quantities, prices and contractual conditions below are assumptions for the exercise, not legal requirements or market benchmarks.

The authority needs 500 lunches per school day, with defined dietary and delivery requirements. The service includes ordering, preparation, transport and handling of changes. A sample menu alone cannot prove reliable delivery.

Review position. The team can deliver the base requirement, but one clarification remains open and the extra cost below is not included in its original price. Submission is five working days away; this is a case assumption.

Estimated meal numbers are provided without a minimum commitment. Ask about historic variation, closure days and adjustment mechanisms. A forecast does not necessarily guarantee revenue.

The teaching calculation covers 10,000 meals. A fall in volume leaves fixed kitchen and transport costs spread over fewer meals. Model a lower-volume case before offering a fixed unit price.

Item	Cost (currency units)
Ingredients for 10,000 meals	18,000
Kitchen staff and facilities	14,000
Transport and administration	8,000
Total	40,000

Total cost is 40,000. To retain 20% of the selling price as profit, price is 40,000 ÷ 0.80 = 50,000. If “Additional dietary production capacity” adds 4,000 to cost without a price increase, profit becomes 6,000, or 12% of price. Preserving 20% would require 55,000, only where the procurement permits that price. A cost increase does not automatically entitle the supplier to a contract price increase.

Country specific — what to verify

Verify food-business registration or approval, hygiene, allergen information, nutrition and dietary obligations for the destination and buyer. Check labour rules and any locally imposed sourcing criteria. Environmental criteria do not replace food-safety requirements.

Local menu specifications and food-safety schedules. Use the destination-country module and the actual tender pack. The sources below are references with their own scope; they do not form a single worldwide regime. For the general method, revisit the foundations.

Put it into practice

Prepare a final review with four decisions: admissibility, clarification, return and submission. State the conditions for a yes and the conditions requiring a no. Produce three response headings linked to requirements.

Model answer

Model decision: conditional bid, not immediate approval. Obtain the official clarification, confirm evidence and resources, then decide the price or withdraw before submission. Do not conceal non-compliance in a prohibited qualification. The three response sections are understanding the need, method and resources, then controls and acceptance. Reconcile ordered, delivered and accepted meals, recording discrepancies and authorised adjustments. Keep traceability and compliance records in the required systems. Measure avoidable waste against a defined baseline rather than promising an unsupported percentage reduction.

Keep this worksheet in your working file. The quiz below checks the lesson’s decisions; passing it is neither a professional qualification nor a guarantee of an award.