The new group, Advantage South West (ASW), expects to replace over 8,500 kitchens for their tenants over the next four years.
The kitchen tender e-auction has taken place and a contract awarded. It was a modern ‘reverse’ auction, replacing the traditional tenders or negotiations.
PHA tenant board member, Carol Bosworth, said she was really pleased to have been able to attend the kitchen exhibition. Carol says “This experience has been most interesting. I have really appreciated being invited to represent tenants and provide input on all the choices available. It’s really nice that tenants can get involved from the beginning. Through ASW it will also save so much money for tenants, but enable them to gain a better quality product”. Representatives of the tenants saw the products from each company at an exhibition.
ASW Procurement Manager, Neil Biddiscombe, says “Selecting suppliers through this process has worked really well for us”. ASW is also going through the same tender process for the replacement of approximately 6,000 bathrooms over the next four years. “The e-auction is a reverse auction which opens up more competition, but also provides increased visibility and is arguably fairer for suppliers” says Neil.
A contract has also already been awarded to Vado-UK to supply the kitchen and bathroom taps. Vado-UK National Sales Manager, Dean Pamphilon, says “It’s a great idea for housing associations to work together to arrange contracts. Because it is a big contract, Vado-UK have been prepared to offer our taps at a lower price than the ASW partners would have been able to achieve on their own. ASW partners can buy taps that the tenants and maintenance managers like, with back up service and support that meets all requirements.” Dean also comments on Vado-UK’s experience of working on this tender “The project was well run. It was clear at all stages what we were required to do, and we were delighted that the tenants representatives ranked our products the highest when they viewed them”.
“We are finalising the deals and early in 2009 should be able to take advantage of these fresh opportunities” said Andy Moore, Chief Executive of Penwith Housing Association, based in Penzance, which alone manages over 6,000 homes in Cornwall and is currently half-way through a multi-million pound improvement scheme.
