NI Water releases £240M in contracts

Companies are being invited to tender for some £240M of contracts by Northern Ireland Water.

To complement the opportunities, a Supplier Engagement Event will be held on Wednesday 24th October at the Dunadry Hotel, Antrim, organised in partnership with InterTradeIreland.

This year NI Water is also seeking suppliers with new ideas and innovative solutions. It extends an invitation to such suppliers to come along and meet the Research, Development and Innovation team.

Ronan Larkin, NI Water’s Director of Finance and Regulation, explains: “NI Water has been focusing on how to make its infrastructure more understood and relevant to the customers we serve. There are a number of exciting initiatives happening to help achieve the company’s vision of becoming a ‘world-class’ water utility, capable of meeting future customer expectations at a sustainably lower cost.  We want to continue to build relationships with great suppliers working alongside us helping us to achieve these ambitious goals.

‘‘A new feature at our Supplier Engagement Event this year is a partnership with InterTrade Ireland to introduce a training zone to help businesses understand the tendering process and also the eTendersNI portal.

“Also new this year will be the opportunity for small companies to meet some of our strategic contractors and I am delighted that Meridian Utilities and Grahams Facilities Management will be available for potential sub contractors to meet.

“InterTrade Ireland and Invest NI will be on hand to provide advice, particularly in the area of consortium bid opportunities.

‘‘The opportunities for local companies really are tremendous – for every £1 that NI Water invests, the wider knock-on effect in our community is almost double that.

“I would strongly encourage the business community, whatever your focus, to come along and meet our procurement teams.”

Caroline Sweeney, Public Tendering Programme Manager from InterTradeIreland added: “This event is a great opportunity for SMEs to meet procurement teams who may, ultimately, be making decisions about whether companies can meet tender requirements so attendance really could be game-changing.  From networking and meeting buyers, insights and critical information may come to light that could help a tender to rise above others.

“InterTradeIreland can support organisations throughout the tendering process and we believe that there is plenty of room in the market for SMEs.

“We also commend NI Water for their progressive and forward-thinking approach to skills-building, recognising the breadth of talents that are on their very doorstep; the capabilities of companies across the island really is world-class.

“InterTradeIreland has a range of business supports and we have helped hundreds of companies through the tendering process.  With the option of consortia building, a lack of resources need not be a barrier to strategic growth and development through tendering.”

Those interested in talking to a procurement manager and/or innovation manager, one of NI Water’s strategic contractors or attending free training on the tender process should contact InterTrade Ireland on: chris.shiels@intertradeireland.com

Interested companies can register here.

Brendan Devlin, Managing Director, GRAHAM Facilities Management at GRAHAM: “We understand the important role NI Water plays in maintaining and upgrading the critical infrastructure required to deliver our potable drinking water and treated sewage. Over the past four years, we’ve built a strong working relationship with NI Water in the provision of M&E and fabric maintenance services, with a team of over 40 engineers and a proven supply chain. We are delighted to be participating in this year’s NI Water Supplier Engagement Event and I would encourage all potential suppliers, including SMEs, to turn up and see for themselves the depth of opportunities and potential contract options that are available – directly with NI Water or with its existing suppliers.”

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