Consult Chinese factories before a public tender
Consult factories through an authority-approved engagement plan, record exchanges, share relevant findings and check whether factory input favours a bidder. Address information gaps and specification bias before tendering; the authority decides the notice and mitigation approach. Coordinate China-side enquiries with Cambridge China Bridge.
Agree the scope before contacting factories
For a public tender using the Cabinet Office preliminary-market-engagement framework, the contracting authority must take steps to prevent unfair supplier advantage and distorted competition. Ask its procurement team to confirm the applicable route before outreach. The guidance excludes contracts below the applicable threshold from these engagement obligations and identifies a notice exception for private utilities.
Agree who authorises questions, receives replies and approves material for wider sharing. Record whether the sourcing intermediary, factory or associated supplier might later support a bid. Use our sourcing-agent briefing guide for capability questions; add an engagement log covering contacts, documents, translations and follow-up discussions. For supplier eligibility, see our guide to public tender participation conditions.
Settle the engagement notice decision
Where the notice obligation applies, the authority must publish a preliminary market engagement notice before the tender notice or explain its non-publication in the tender notice. The engagement notice can invite participation or report engagement already undertaken. Calling a factory conversation informal does not settle whether it counts: the guidance looks at its purpose and subject.
Give the procurement team a proposed scope, participation route, response arrangements and description of factory visits or discussions. Recommend a common invitation and question pack, with translated versions checked for equivalent meaning. If factories have already been contacted, submit the contact record and findings promptly so the authority can decide how to inform the wider market.
Share useful findings without exposing secrets
The guidance recommends recording information shared and received, considering relevant outputs for tender documents, and planning how to handle confidential information and intellectual property. It also identifies sharing relevant information and allowing adequate tender response time as possible safeguards.
Before requesting drawings or process details, agree what may be circulated and what needs a separate confidential annex. Prepare a common findings pack covering feasibility, assumptions, clarified requirements and answers relevant to bidding. Keep original replies alongside checked translations. If a confidential answer affects the specification, ask the authority how its useful conclusion can be shared without revealing protected detail. For supplier communication after assessment, see our guide to explaining public tender results.
Check how factory advice changes the specification
The guidance says engagement should not tailor procurement to a particular supplier. As a practical check, ask whether each proposed requirement describes the buyer’s need or merely reproduces the consulted factory’s equipment, catalogue or preferred manufacturing process.
Keep a change record showing the suggestion, its source, the buyer’s reason for accepting it and alternatives considered. Ask other factories to challenge restrictive assumptions. Use our product specification guide for drafting detail, then review factory-originated wording separately for its effect on competition before the authority approves the tender documents.
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Review remaining advantages before tendering
Ask the authority to review who has advance knowledge, access to samples, additional development time or influence over requirements. Propose sharing relevant outputs, opening equivalent access, revising restrictive wording or allowing adequate response time. Record the chosen measures and why they address the identified advantage; publishing a notice alone does not resolve an information or design advantage.
Participation does not automatically require exclusion. However, if the authority considers that engagement gave a supplier an unfair advantage which cannot be avoided, the guidance says that supplier must be excluded. Escalate unresolved advantages before tendering. Cambridge China Bridge’s staff in China can help collect factory evidence and organise replies; keep notice, specification and mitigation decisions with the authority.
Frequently asked questions
Can we speak to a Chinese factory before tendering?
Yes, under an authority-approved plan. Record exchanges and assess whether the contact gives a prospective bidder an unfair advantage or distorts competition.
Do we have to publish a market engagement notice?
Where the obligation applies, publish before the tender notice or explain non-publication in that tender notice. Ask the authority to confirm scope and exceptions.
Must we share every factory drawing with bidders?
Agree confidentiality handling before collecting drawings. Prepare shareable findings and refer any confidential input affecting tender requirements to the authority.
Can a consulted supplier still bid?
Consultation does not automatically prevent bidding. If the authority considers that it created an unfair advantage which cannot be avoided, the supplier must be excluded.