Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has launched a planning notice for a national framework agreement designed to streamline food and beverage services across public sector organisations.

The framework consolidates what are typically fragmented supplier relationships. Most public sector organisations currently contract separately for catering staff, ingredients, logistics and waste management, creating operational complexity and duplication of effort. The trust is seeking an end-to-end supplier to handle procurement, distribution, preparation, waste management and reporting through a single contract.

This is a market engagement notice, signalling the trust's intent to develop the framework and inviting supplier feedback on approach and feasibility before formal procurement begins. The estimated value is £49m.

Suppliers in food service, catering logistics, waste management and integrated hospitality should monitor find-tender.service.gov.uk for the formal tender notice, which typically follows market engagement within months. Public sector buyers considering similar consolidation should watch this framework's design, as it may become available as a call-off vehicle for their own catering needs.