FIREBUY Suppliers Day Wednesday 16 th March 2011 from The Consortium

The Consortium? The Consortium was formerly a local authorities supplies organisation covering the South West of England and much of Wales It provided procurement and fulfilment services to 10 county councils and 60 or so district councils. It supported Police and Fire authorities with specialist contract management. In 1995, following local government reorganisation, we joined the private sector We have continued to serve customers delivering public services, whether in the public, private or 3 rd sectors, across the UK. Whilst 80% of our business is now in educational supplies, we have retained our links with the Fire Service Since 1994, we have provided procurement and contract management support to the Fire Service Appliance Consortium (FSAC) and were instrumental in the development of the original Standard Type B Water Tender Specialist contracts, including EU compliant tendering, are a small but important part of our operations today.

Why Were We Selected The Consortium is not the easy choice for DCLG We are not a contracting authority (because we are a private sector, for profit, organisation) We are based in Wiltshire (Firebuy is based in Reigate) But We have relevant contracting experience We understand the specific issues facing the fire engineering sector We understand the (sometimes conflicting) demands of Chief Fire Officers and their Fleet Engineers and Procurement Managers We understand that no-one is mandated to use the contracts we will be taking on And we were still up for the challenge!

Why Firebuy from The Consortium The Consortium recognises that public procurement is changing. We see the Firebuy opportunity as a way to demonstrate our specialist procurement credentials, leveraging the long term relationships we have with the Fire Service. We believe we can strike a new balance between compliance and innovation, working with customers and suppliers to find solutions to today’s operational and financial challenges. The Consortium doesn’t have a policy agenda to deliver so we aim to be a facilitator, providing procurement frameworks that deliver flexibility and value to the Fire and Rescue Service (and others) and clarity and opportunity to suppliers. We have no wish to burden customers or suppliers with bureaucracy or to stand between customers and their key suppliers. We will invest time in understanding what works, what doesn’t work and what could be done differently. We will only succeed if we can demonstrate the value of our involvement to you and to your customers.

What Next Today is the first step in the process of engaging with suppliers We have more work to do with Firebuy and DCLG before we formally take the Framework contracts on, but we are keen to build on the momentum from today If you would like to talk sooner rather than later, please contact me: Melanie Teal Chief Executive The Consortium, Hammond Way, Trowbridge, Wiltshire BA14 8RR Tel: