Firms shortlisted for £4.35bn defence contracts

The Ministry of Defence’s estate arms has announced the shortlisted bidders for a £4.35bn tranche of contracts to provide maintenance and repairs to the defence estate.

The three shortlists announced by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), with a value of up to £4.35bn, cover the central, south east and south west regions.

The shortlisted bidders are:

Regional Prime Central (worth up to £1.8bn): includes Catterick Garrison, Beacon Barracks Stafford, RAF Shawbury and RAF Valley training bases, DST Leconfield, Wattisham Airfield, RAF College Cranwell, and the intelligence and security centre at Chicksands

• Axiam Ltd - a joint venture comprising Interserve Defence Ltd and DynCorp International LCC
• Babcock Support Services Ltd - a division of Babcock International Group plc)
• Carillion Enterprise Ltd - a joint venture comprising: Carillion Services Ltd and Enterprise Managed Services Ltd
• KBR - a proposed joint venture comprising Kellogg Brown and Root Ltd and Balfour Beatty Workplace Ltd

Regional Prime South East (worth up to £1.2bn) : includes RMA Sandhurst, DMRC Headley Court, HQ Land Forces Andover, Hyde Park Barracks, Woolwich Barracks, Horse Guards, RAF High Wycombe and RAF Northolt

• Babcock Support Services Ltd - a division of Babcock International Group plc
• Carillion Enterprise Ltd - a joint venture comprising Carillion Services Ltd and Enterprise Managed Services Ltd
• KBR - a proposed joint venture comprising Kellogg Brown and Root Ltd and Balfour Beatty Workplace Ltd
• PriDE (SERP) Ltd - a joint venture comprising Interserve Defence Ltd and SSE Contracting Ltd

Regional Prime South West (worth up to £1.35bn): includes various Royal Marines bases, RNAS Yeovilton, RNAS Culdrose, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) headquarters

• Babcock Support Services Ltd - a division of Babcock International Group plc)
• Carillion Enterprise Ltd - a joint venture comprising Carillion Services Ltd and Enterprise Managed Services Ltd
• Landmarc Support Services Ltd - wholly owned by Interserve plc and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)

The announcement comes after the DIO confirmed this week that the award of the contracts would be delayed until 2014 as the organisation proceeds with the procurement of a strategic business partner from the private sector to manage its operations.

The DIO said the successful bidders will provide maintenance and repairs to the defence estate.

Other services will include a 24/7 helpdesk for estate-users, a regional energy management bureau, grounds maintenance, and snow and ice clearance, with the delivery of Soft FM services to some sites included for the South West.

Each contract also includes options for land management services and construction projects valued below £3.93m.

Steve Rice, Head of the NGEC programme, said: “Our top priority is to support our Armed Forces as they prepare for operations, while ensuring value for money, and our next generation of industry partners and suppliers will have a significant part to play in achieving that.

“The regional primes have attracted a high level of interest from businesses of all sizes, and I am pleased that following a rigorous evaluation process we have established strong competitive shortlists of bidders with whom we can discuss our detailed requirements.”

The DIO said the bidders will soon begin the tendering process with a programme of visits to selected defence establishments, followed by invitations to submit tenders in October 2012.

Final tenders are expected before March 2013, with the preferred bidder being announced by April 2014.

The DIO said the three regional contracts for England are expected to be in-service from September 2014, replacing the two current regional prime contracts for South East and South West, and introducing a new single regional prime contract for the existing separate Central and East regions.

A fourth regional prime - for Scotland and Northern Ireland - was launched in 2011 and is already “well advanced” in the tendering process, the DIO added.