Tender Specification
Invitation to tender for provision of Public Relations services to North East Finance.
Tender Reference: NEF 0010
June 2015
North East Finance (Holdco) Ltd
First Floor
33 Grey Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 6EE
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1.
BACKGROUND
This Invitation to Tender is being issued by North East Finance (Holdco) Limited, a company
with registered number 7000577 and registered office at 33 Grey Street, Newcastle upon
Tyne, NE1 6EE (“NEF”).
NEF is the holding fund manager for the £142.5m Finance for Business North East (“FBNE”)
programme. The programme was established under (and was formerly referred to as) the
JEREMIE programme. JEREMIE stands for Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium
Enterprises, and is a joint initiative between the European Commission and the European
Investment Bank Group.
NEF has established seven venture capital and loan funds, which provide funding on
commercial terms to SMEs based in the North East of England: County Durham, Tyne &
Wear, Northumberland and Tees Valley. The funds have been designed to target demand
from all business sectors and stages and the types of funding they provide range from loans
of £1,000+ to individuals starting a business to equity or mezzanine investments of up to
£1.25m in established businesses or businesses with high growth potential.
NEF has overall responsibility for the FBNE programme but does not itself receive and review
applications for funding from SMEs, or make the investments – this is carried out by
independent fund management companies with which NEF has contracted to manage the
funds. Information on the fund managers and the funds is available on NEF’s website:
http://www.northeastfinance.org/
It is primarily the responsibility of the fund managers to promote and market the fund(s) for
which they are responsible. The role of NEF is to promote awareness of the suite of funds,
inform stakeholders of the progress made, showcase case studies as examples of good
investment and report the outputs and milestones which they are to secure, including: SMEs
supported, new jobs created, jobs safeguarded. Stakeholders include: local and national
government, the European Investment Bank, the European Commission, Local Enterprise
Partnerships, professional advisers, business support organisations and corporate finance
intermediaries.
NEF would like to appoint PR advisers to help maintain and raise awareness of North East
Finance and the role it plays in the regional economy, in both the Tees Valley and North East
Local Economic Partnership area and of the suite of investment funds currently operated by
North East Finance.
NEF intends to award a 12 month contract for PR services for the period to 30 June 2016,
with the appointment being made in late June 2015. The contract may be extended, by
mutual agreement between NEF and the appointed tenderer, for a further period of up to 18
months – i.e. to 31 December 2017.
Please see section 7, below, for details of where and by when your tender must be submitted
and section 9 for where to address queries.
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2.
SPECIFICATION OF REQUIREMENTS
North East Finance wants to appoint PR advisers to assist it in relation to all of the company’s
public relations and marketing activities for the period to 30 June 2016, and potentially to 31
December 2017.
Primary PR Objectives
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To maintain and raise awareness of North East Finance and its role as the
implementing body for the JEREMIE Funds
To assist in encouraging deal flow from SMEs based in all areas served by NEF’s
funds (Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and the Tees Valley) and to
work collaboratively where required in order to most effectively achieve this goal
To promote NEF’s suite of investment funds – the Finance For Business North East
Funds – otherwise known as JEREMIE
Specific Requirements
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Managing and implementing a systematic PR operation for North East Finance,
including the instigation of media coverage and other targeted communications, such
as newsletters, printed marketing collateral and to provide objective feedback and
respond to media queries
Advising on aspects of North East Finance’s work that could impact on the company’s
corporate reputation and/or the delivery of its services
Integrating PR operations with other aspects of the company’s corporate
communications for consistency, clarity and impact
Provide press cutting service: collating, collecting and proving (in hard copy and/or
PDF) press cuttings of all press articles featuring any of the FBNE funds on a
quarterly basis
Assist with copywriting
Assist with media relations
Collate and write a quarterly newsletter
Liaise with fund managers to co-ordinate press releases
Identify PR opportunities
Co-ordinate printing work and negotiate cost effective solutions
Target Audiences
Media relations and other PR operations are to be directed at the following:
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Business intermediaries and professional advisers operating within the North East
region
Entrepreneurs and SMEs seeking investment
Regional stakeholders
The wider regional investment community, including business angels
Potential investors based outside the region
Political and administrative influencers within the region, Whitehall and the EU
Journalists and other bodies seeking information and details about the Finance for
Business North East Funds
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3.
TENDER RESPONSE
You are requested to submit the following information, in writing, in accordance with the
instructions in section 7, below:
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The PR issues you have identified in relation to the task
The approach you would adopt in dealing with those issues
A description of how you would manage the PR account, detailing the capabilities /
resources at your disposal to provide meet all of the requirements listed in section 2,
above
A summary of your firm’s history, including examples of relevant prior experience of
providing the services required by NEF
The CVs of any individual who would work directly on the PR activity, including
hourly charge rates
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Cost quotation (see further details in section 4, below).
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A summary of your firm’s corporate structure, including details of owners and
managers of the firm
CONTRACT PRICE
Tenderers must provide a quote for providing the service for the term (12 months), including:
the basis on which services will be charged; and a breakdown of any assumptions made and
any individual costings that comprise the total.
All anticipated heads of cost should be identified and a quote or estimate provided.
You must specify if costs are inclusive or exclusive of VAT.
The price payable for services during any extension of the contract will be the same as during
the initial 12 month term (i.e. cannot be increased), but subject to any appropriate reductions
if a lower level of service is required during the extension period. For example, production of
a quarterly newsletter and the press-cuttings service may no longer be required and so, as a
minimum, tender submissions must identify the cost of providing those services so that the
associated costs can be removed in the event that they are no longer required.
5.
AWARD CRITERIA
NEF will award the contract for the services to the most economically advantageous tender in
terms of the following criteria:
1
2
3
Criteria
Weighting %
Capabilities of the bidder, as demonstrated by the CVs of the
individuals who will work on the account and supported by examples
of previous work done when providing similar services
Price
Quality of tender – demonstrating of an understanding of the PR
issues relevant to NEF and the ability to address these and to meet
the requirements set out in section 2 of this Invitation to Tender
35%
30%
35%
NEF may request clarification on tender proposals before finalising its assessment of the
relevant bids, e.g. if necessary to enable a direct comparison of pricing proposals.
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In relation to award criteria 1 and 3, above, tender responses will be scored in accordance
with the following principles:
Score
0
1
2
3
4
5
Scoring Principles
Unacceptable – proposals are unacceptable
Very Weak – proposals are very weak
Some Reservations – proposals give rise to some reservations
Satisfactory – proposals are satisfactory
Good – proposals are good
Excellent – proposals are excellent
In relation to Award Criteria 2 (Price), the lowest-priced proposal will be awarded the highest
score under this criteria, and the other proposals will be scored in accordance with their rank
(lowest price to highest price scoring most to least), taking into account the magnitude of
difference between prices.
NEF will award this contract to the most economically advantageous tender, based on the
evaluation of tenders received in accordance with the scoring criteria, weighting and
principles set out above.
6.
CONTRACT TERMS
For simplicity, NEF will contract on the basis of the successful bidder’s standard terms and
conditions, subject to agreement to amend any such terms which are not acceptable to NEF
and to insert any additional terms required by NEF. (In the absence of agreement of terms,
NEF reserves the right not to award the contract and to offer it instead to the next-highest
scoring bidder.) Please therefore submit a copy of your standard terms and conditions
with the tender, or provide a link to them.
The contract price will reflect the proposals in the successful bidder’s tender proposal
document. North East Finance will require the right to terminate the contract at any time
during its term by providing three month’s notice in writing.
This project, and the contract to be let pursuant to this Invitation to Tender, is part-funded by
the European Regional Development Fund.
7. TENDER SUBMISSION
Please submit two, duplicate copies of a written proposal of how you would propose
delivering the requirements outlined in section 2, above, including the information requested
at sections 3, 4 and 5.
All tenders must be submitted no later than 12 noon on Thursday 25th June. Any tenders
received after this time will be excluded from the evaluation and will not be considered.
Unfortunately, we cannot accept tenders submitted by email and so tenders must be sent by
post or delivered to:
Dawn Dunn
North East Finance
First Floor
33 Grey Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 6EE
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8. BASIS OF TENDER SUBMISSION
NEF cannot reimburse any costs associated with the preparation and submission of a
proposal for this piece of work. If you chose to submit a proposal, you must bear all such
costs.
Quotations and proposals must remain valid and open for acceptance for a period of at least
60 days from the date on which they are submitted to NEF.
NEF reserves the right:
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to cancel the tender process at any time;
not to accept the lowest-cost proposal; and
to decline all proposals if none are considered satisfactory.
9. QUERIES
All queries in connection with this tender should be addressed to Dawn Dunn at
[email protected] or (0191) 211 2301.
To ensure a fair and transparent tender process no approach of any kind in connection with
this tender should be made to any other person within, or associated with North East Finance
(Holdco) Limited. Failure to comply may result in disqualification from the process.
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