How we helped a cleaning company expand into a new geographic area by winning public sector contracts
Headline stats
Client: United Cleaning Solutions Ltd
Sector: Cleaning
Support Provided: Partnership
Key outcomes:
- £1.5m, 5-year college cleaning contract secured
- Successful appointment onto a specialist education cleaning DPS
- Achieved ISO accreditation to access more opportunities
- Expanded from Scotland into a new geographic market
- Following successful bids UCS now have an established team of contract managers, cleaning operatives and supervisors in the North West
- Built a repeatable public sector tendering process
- Consistently winning against established providers
Why did the client come to us?
United Cleaning Solutions (UCS) are a Glasgow-based, family-run cleaning company with an established portfolio of private sector clients across Scotland and parts of England. Our first conversations were not focused on our partnership solution, but in fact, like many clients, they came to us to request help with a specific tender – an existing client wanted them to tender for additional locations outside Scotland. This work led to us discovering a great deal about the way they operate, and although unfortunately that particular tender was withdrawn, the experience was positive and UCS came back to us for help when a tender for a large college in Scotland was released. This was a successful exercise leading to the award of a ~£1.5M, 5 year contract.
Through this early work, we identified that UCS had strong operational capability and significant growth potential within the public sector market, particularly within education cleaning contracts. We discussed this opportunity for long-term business growth with them; as a result UCS signed up for our Complete Partnership solution, with a view to expanding their operations from Scotland into the North West of England.
The decision to work together was not simply about winning the next tender. It was about creating a structured approach to identifying opportunities, improving competitiveness and building a sustainable pipeline of public sector contracts that would support long-term business growth.
How did we help them?
The focus shifted from isolated tender submissions towards building a long-term, regular tendering process for securing public sector contracts and growing their business for school, academy and university cleaning contracts. We worked together to identify appropriate opportunities, make informed decisions as to whether to bid or not, complete bid submissions, and continuously improve by reviewing and analysing feedback and building supporting collateral such as imagery, case studies and other evidence.
We used feedback from both successful and unsuccessful bids to refine the UCS proposal, strengthen messaging, change business processes and improve future submissions over time. We developed the UCS Unique Selling Point and ensured it was articulated throughout every bid.
From the feedback on early submissions, we recognised that one of the challenges of expanding into a new geographical area was a reluctance from buyers to award a contract to a non-local supplier without an existing team of cleaners in the area. We worked with UCS to ensure we had a compelling argument as to why a buyer in the North West of England should award a contract to a Scottish-based company and didn’t ignore this in tender responses – we addressed it head on.
Trend analysis is also key to continuous improvement, and we noted that a reasonably large percentage of the relevant cleaning tenders were run as two-stage processes, with the highest scoring bidders taken through to ITT following an SQ (now known as PSQ) stage. Many of these tenders had ISO accreditation as criteria in the first stage, with either zero marks for no accreditations, or a Fail for no accreditations. To be in with a chance of progressing in these tenders, we recommended UCS obtain ISO accreditation, which they achieved, so now UCS are much more likely to reach the ITT stage of those 2-stage tenders, which in turn increases the number of opportunities available.
In addition to scoring well on quality questions, UCS themselves learnt that the public sector is much more competitive in the pricing aspect, so they had to really understand the bottom-line costs when bidding in this market.
How did we succeed?
UCS were awarded a place on a DPS specifically set up for school cleaning tenders, through which they won their first school cleaning tender in the North West of England. The DPS proved a rich source of opportunities, and more contracts followed through this route.
As contract wins accumulated, UCS developed both the operational infrastructure and local credibility needed to compete effectively against established regional providers. Each success created additional evidence, , and word spread amongst the schools in the region that this ‘new’ cleaning company had a fresh approach. Tender successes continued with multiple contract wins outside of the DPS.
We ensured UCS kept records of specific challenges and their corresponding solutions on contracts and continually developed the tender narrative we were using with real examples of the value UCS brings to all contracts. This meant that over time, each successful contract strengthened UCS’s credibility and improved their future bid competitiveness. We learned that site visits were key to understanding buyers’ unique challenges, and the client improved the information provided to us via this route so we could build on it in tender responses.
Alongside the expansion into the North West of England, we also successfully tendered for more opportunities in Scotland, growing the business there too.
What was the strategic outcome?
The real success of the partnership was not any single contract award. It was the creation of a repeatable contract-winning process that enabled UCS to consistently identify opportunities, improve bid quality, learn from outcomes and strengthen their market position over time.
As a result of working so closely with UCS for several years now, their involvement in bids is
minimised and really focused on addressing each buyers’ needs. This means their time is spent on high-value tasks, tailoring each bid to deliver the best outcomes for buyers. Rapid decisions on determining whether to bid or not are made, and drafting submissions is efficient. UCS now have a large team of contract managers, cleaning operatives and supervisors in the North West, and are continually expanding that team.
Today, UCS has an established presence across both Scotland and the North West of England, a growing public sector client base, and a structured tendering process that continues to generate new opportunities.
What began as support on individual tender projects evolved into a long-term growth partnership focused on building sustainable contract revenue, improving competitiveness and creating a platform for continued expansion.
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Steven Smith - Doncaster, UK
FAQs
Which ISO accreditations are often needed for cleaning tenders?
ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001
Are any other accreditations needed?
BICSc (British Institute of Cleaning Science) membership is often asked for, as is an SSIP
accreditation (e.g. SafeContractor).
How can I find out about site visits?
Cleaning tender documentation will contain the details of the site visits – these are usually run on a specific day and potential bidders must register in advance. They are often soon after the tender notice is published, so it’s important to keep on top of relevant opportunities and review the documentation as soon as possible so you don’t miss out on the visit.
How can I find a DPS with relevant opportunities for my business?
DPS’s are a great way to source tender opportunities, as they are usually open for submissions
throughout their lifetime, rather than bidders only having one opportunity to apply. You can search for DPS’s on the UK government’s Find a Tender website https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search using relevant keywords to your sector. You’ll also find a useful blog
about this here [ADD IN LINK ONCE BLOGS LOADED]
Can a Scottish company win contracts in England?
Yes. Public sector buyers cannot automatically favour local suppliers simply because they are based nearby. However, when bidding for contracts in a new geographic area, buyers will often want reassurance that you can recruit staff, manage operations, respond quickly to issues, and maintain service quality locally.
For cleaning contracts in particular, it is important to demonstrate how you will mobilise the contract, recruit and manage local teams, provide supervision, and maintain communication with the client. Strong mobilisation plans, local recruitment strategies, and evidence of successfully delivering contracts across multiple locations can help overcome concerns about distance.
