Northumbrian Water has gone out to tender with a major contract for a wide-ranging scope of works for bill printing services.

Services to be provided under the contract include:

1. Printing of customer bills and letters, including:

• Laser printing of bills and letters.
• Mailsorting our bill and letter files, including adding a Mailmark barcode on the documents.
• Enclosing ready for collection by downstream service provider to meet mailsort requirements.
• Provide or process controls tracking data from receipt of files to the despatch of mail.
• Procurement / provision of stationery including paper, envelopes and occasionally leaflets.
• Provision of stock storage, stock reports and stock re-order alerts when re-order levels are reached.
• Processing of returned mail, including providing a weekly file detailing mail returned.

2. PayPoint payment card production, including:

• Provision or sourcing of plastic payment cards, and paper for customer letters
• Encoding of magnetic strip
• Card attached to customer letter and mailed. Currently mailed using existing envelope stock from main print files as detailed above.

3. Hybrid Mail solution

Providing a print solution for our colleagues working both in the office and at home

The successful supplier must be able to manage the printing and fulfilment of 12 to 25,000 items on a daily basis. In addition to daily files they should be able to manage the peak of annual billing which will require a phased mailing over a four week period during February and March where approximately 550,000 bills will be produced . This is in addition to the daily file volumes.

Approximate annual volumes

• Daily bills 1.5m, Usually 2-4 sheets. Typically 4 sheets April to September when additional onserts are used and 2 sheets October to March.
• Daily Letters 2.4m, 1 to 3 page documents
• Annual bills 0.55m, Typically 4 sheet bills including selective onserts, a small number may have up to two additional onserts.
• Outer envelopes 4.5m 162mm x 235mm
• Return envelopes, 1.1m 102mm x 216mmAll bills and letters are printed on continuous plain white paper. In the 12 months up to end of November 2023 continuous paper usage has totalled 10.255 million A4 sheets

Payment Cards - Approximately 30,000 cards are issued per year. Volumes are on average 115 per day

Hybrid Mail - Over the last 12 months Northumbrian Water’s monthly volumes have been between around 4,000 and 11,000.

The initial contract period will be for a period of three years with the option to extend for a further two years.

Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is 4pm on 30 January 2024 – click here to access the tender documentation