CR Contracting North, Path & Bike Trail Construction
"What would take me a whole day to work on would take Gill about three hours and I am free to get on with doing my own job. It’s been very worthwhile."
CR Contracting North Ltd (CRC), based near Banchory, Aberdeenshire, has been trading since 2003. The company regularly undertakes work for government contracts, community groups and private enterprises and has constructed many of the new paths, mountain bike trails and pump tracks in the North of Scotland over the last 15 years.
Before contacting Intend, CRC had had mixed success in bidding for public sector contracts, but the company’s fortunes markedly improved after Director, Chris Rogerson, was made aware of the tender training available through the Public Contracts process. He sent one of his team to a workshop run by Intend and that was the start of a whole new chapter.
“Once we started using Intend there was a big difference in the success of our applications,” he said. “One of the earliest contracts we won, thanks to Gill, was for £380,000. That was a great success! We were competing against 11 other contractors.”
Another example of Intend’s help in securing CRC a number of contracts, is the 300-metre timber boardwalk and footpaths work - worth £112,000 - the company carried out for Aberdeen City Council.
“A good deal of our work comes from the Public Contracts website,” Chris explained. “That’s why Intend is so important. The Public Contract tender process is quite complicated. You never know if you’ve given the information that they are looking for - that’s where Gill helps. For example, in tendering for a £260,000 job, which we’re currently working on, we were told that, on price, all the tenders were much the same but my presentation was very impressive. That’s thanks to Intend. I would say: ‘definitely use them,’ as that allows you to go for more and bigger contracts. It helps broaden your horizons and lets you go into different areas by having a good tender that shows clearly what you are going to do.
“When you compare the cost of using Intend against the cost to you of your own time, in bidding for tenders, it makes sense to use them. What would take me a whole day to work on would take Gill about three hours and I am free to get on with doing my own job. It’s been very worthwhile.”