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Case Type 1 ::SIB Office Supplies
Thu 22nd Jan 2009, 10:46am
SIB Office Supplies Ltd is a supplier of stationery, office & education furniture and computer consumables. Established in 1978 the company is based in Middlesbrough. SIB also has offices in Thornaby, Cooper Office Supplies Limited and Gateshead, Saville Office Supplies Limited. SIB has supplied local authorities, NHS, financial institutions, offshore and chemical companies in this area for the past 30 years.
More recently the business of SIB Office Supplies has been severely affected by the loss of over £250,000 worth of contract due to the aggregation of stationary contracts. SIB took part in an e-auction to bid for the aggregated contract but found themselves to be heavily undercut by a large office suppliers firm based in France. This has not only affected SIB but also many other local stationary suppliers in the North East. SIB spent weeks of time and resource putting together PQQs for this contract and have nothing to show for their work. SIB and many other local stationary suppliers are now excluded from all of the stationary contracts with local authorities in their immediate areas for a period of six years, four years plus two one year extensions.
Marie Bell, SIB Company Secretary stated “The increasing number of aggregated contracts coming out of the public sector is severely affecting SMEs such as ourselves. We are very capable of delivering over and above contracting requirements but are increasingly finding that we are excluded from the public sector market due to the unmanageable size of aggregated contracts."
“This immediately benefits larger suppliers who can undercut our price. These suppliers are often based outside of the region and a lot of money is lost to the local economy. I would estimate approx £23 million has been lost from the North East economy through the exclusion of the local supplier base for stationary. "