Bury Council has agreed a £640,000 deal for the supply of cleaning and janitorial materials across its buildings and schools.
The authority has joined forces with Oldham Council to find the best value supplier, and a decision on the provider was approved at its latest cabinet meeting.
The contract was awarded to Alliance for an initial two years. However, the deal has an option to extend for a further two.
A report said Alliance was identified as the “best value supplier” after meeting all “technical and commercial requirements” and offering “the most competitive pricing structure”.
Councillors were told that sticking with a temporary contract would have breached procurement rules, while joining the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s purchasing framework would have been more expensive.
The report warned that this “would have increased the cost of the materials, creating financial pressure”.
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The move follows GMCA undertaking a procurement process alongside Bolton Council in 2019 for the source of the cleaning materials, with Arrow selected as the supplier.
Bury Council says this contract, which ended in May 2023, included its services and resulted in “some items being missed from the list of products used, including Building Cleaning and Caretaking”.
Some paper products also weren’t included in the previous Arrow contract, and Bury Council says it caused some items to “fluctuate in price”.
The new contract, agreed with Alliance, covers all caretaking and janitorial cleaning materials used across council facilities, including offices and schools, and is expected to deliver improved value and consistency.
Bury Council’s cabinet approved the agreement on October 15.
The report added: “The service has changed suppliers, achieving cost savings on chemicals and janitorial supplies, making the service more competitive.
“As some paper products and cleaning materials were not included in the GMCA contract, this caused some items to fluctuate in price during the term of the contract.
“The contract with Arrow ended in May 2023. As the contract ended, prices increased considerably; therefore, a follow-up mini competition was held to award a temporary contract.
“This temporary contract is in place, however, due to capacity issues within the Procurement team, the full tender process was delayed, creating risk to the council.
“The contract value due to price increases and inflation has increased to £640,000 over the time period of the contract.”
