PRE-MARKET ENGAGEMENT QUESTIONNAIRE (PME) for Ambient and Chilled Grocery Products
The Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI), the public education body responsible for supporting schools and education services in Northern Ireland, is conducting pre-market engagement on the potential provision of ambient and chilled grocery products. The future requirement may cover supplying and distributing a broad range of food products, including general groceries, oils and fats, bread and bakery items, preserved foods, dairy-related products, beverages, condiments, prepared food products and specialist nutritional goods. Products would be delivered to schools and Education Authority locations across Northern Ireland, identified as the UKN region. This exercise is solely intended to gather supplier views to inform business planning and a possible later procurement, so no contract value, duration or confirmed delivery model is available at this stage. The critical participation requirement is completion of the prescribed pre-market engagement questionnaire in accordance with the CPS.1.05 PME Questionnaire Ambient Grocery instructions; responses will not be evaluated as tenders and participation will not determine eligibility for any subsequent procurement.
Buyer: the Education Authority. Source: eTendersNI. Updated 12 Oct 2026.
Key facts
- Estimated value: Not stated by the buyer
- Bids close: 30 Oct 2026
- Location: Northern Ireland
- Procedure: Open/Competitive Flexible
- Category: Food, beverages, tobacco and related products (15000000)
From the official notice
***This is not a tender exercise by the Education Authority*** The Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) wishes to engage with the market to seek their views on establishing a robust, value for money contract for the provision of Ambient and Chilled Grocery Products to schools and EA locations in Northern Ireland. Any information gathered through this market consultation exercise will inform internal business planning and any possible subsequent procurement process and will NOT be appraised in any future tender evaluation exercise. Please note that participation or nonparticipation in this preliminary market consultation exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any potential procurement process, nor is it intended that any information supplied shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any forthcoming procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of a formal procurement process. Suppliers who wish to participate in the market engagement exercise should complete the pre-market engagement questionnaire. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from the documents of the CfT on eTendersNI. The Questionnaire must be completed no later than 3pm on 30 October 2026 (deadline) in accordance with the instructions detailed in the CPS.1.05 PME Questionnaire Ambient Grocery document.
View the official notice
Questions about this tender
When is the deadline?
Bids close on 30 Oct 2026.
What is it worth?
The buyer has not published a value.
Who can apply?
Any supplier that meets the buyer's requirements can apply. Check the official notice for conditions.
How do I bid?
Open the official notice, register on the buyer's portal and submit your bid before the deadline.
Similar tenders
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
See all live tenders