The first UK-wide tendering success for leading Scottish independent lift firm Caltech Lifts shows how Scotland’s best SMEs should aim to grow straight from lockdown by focussed excellence on service and training.
It’s one of just 27 UK SMEs to have won the right to bid for an estimated £65 million of public sector lift contracts in a UK 2020-24 lifts procurement framework administered for member public bodies by procurement process outsourcer Fusion 21.
The total £80 million framework will deliver design, installation, refurbishment and the servicing/maintenance of lifts to a vast list of organisations across the public sector – from central government, NHS trusts and emergency services to local authorities, education and housing providers for the next four years. It covers passenger/goods lifts and domestic lifts, including stairlifts, step lifts and platform lifts.
Successful application
Caltech Lifts has successfully applied to gain bidding rights on three ‘lots’ for the ‘Rest of the UK’ area, which covers everywhere outside London and the South-East. Between them the lots cover lift servicing, installation, maintenance and refurbishment.
It’s the first time the Dundee-based firm has won a place on the UK-wide framework and, if successful in tendering for the contracts within the lots, it hopes to create new jobs to add to the 20 it already employs.
To gain the right to tender, it successfully passed a ranking system test for potential suppliers which has stringent requirements for supplier competency including requiring appropriate memberships and accreditations including being a member of industry body LEIA, which Managing Director Andrew Renwick represents on specialist industry groups in Scotland.
Awards expected
Organisations which are members of the service run by Fusion 21 – from DEFRA and NHS Property Services Ltd to Tayside Procurement Consortium and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport – are now placing their projects on the portal so Caltech Lifts and the other chosen firms can bid for the ones best suited to their capabilities. Contract Award Notices are expected to be issued by the end of this month.
Caltech’s existing clients include Dundee City Council and numerous high-quality hotel and care home groups. Last year it installed a record-breaking lift which will play a key role at the Baldovie waste-to-energy plant in Dundee.
Speaking about the new milestone in Caltech’s continuing growth story, Managing Director Andrew Renwick said: “We’re naturally delighted to have our excellence of service and ongoing commitment to high-quality training and staff care recognised by Fusion 21 with this achievement.
Track record
“Our success, thanks to our track record and the skill of our public sector tenders team shows Scotland’s other SMEs which deliver quality should aim to grow right now, straight out of lockdown, and create the new jobs Scotland needs to replace those being lost daily around us.
“Our success so far also demonstrates that great Scottish firms shouldn’t restrict their ambitions to Scotland. By seeking, spotting and going for the opportunities elsewhere too we can grow our best SMEs into large companies and help Scotland bounce back from Covid-19.”
Established in 1978, Caltech Lifts Limited is one of the UK’s leading suppliers and maintainers of lifting equipment, including passenger lifts, goods lifts, disabled access lifts and stairlifts to the Public and Private sectors, and maintains more than 1,000 lifts maintained across the UK.
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