Support and advice for businesses
Local Supply Chain Business Directory
We invite local businesses to register on our local supplier directory.
The council spends over £200m through its contract and procurement each year and we want more local businesses to benefit from this. For example, in 2022-23 the council procured external services such as printing, training, catering, building surveys, and Arts & Leisure.
It is essential that the council’s spending, both direct and with suppliers, has the maximum positive impact for local people and businesses. We want to make sure the council’s purchasing decisions support local people through supporting businesses, creating employment and stimulating the local economy.
We invite local businesses to register on our local supplier directory, these details will be shared internally with staff at the Council as a resource for finding potential suppliers to seek quotes from. Spend can range from a few hundred pounds up to millions so suppliers of all sizes and sectors are encouraged to register.
The directory is shared with suppliers working with the Council looking to subcontract with local businesses and is published below and updated on a quarterly basis. The published version of the directory only includes basic information: supplier name and address, category and website. This allows a wider range of organisations and the public to have a resource of local businesses to potentially buy from.
The directory is open to organisations local to the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. This is defined as organisations that have a trading address within the borough, the South London Partnership sub region or neighbouring boroughs; Kingston, Sutton, Croydon, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Wandsworth, Elmbridge, Epsom & Ewell.
Submissions that list a postcode from outside of these areas will be removed from the directory.
Suppliers invited to bid for contracts with the council will usually need to submit quotes that will be evaluated in line with the Council's procurement processes. For further information, please see the Doing Business with RBK guide.
Inclusion on the directory does not guarantee work, or an invitation to bid for work.
We also want to support and enable Kingston businesses, particularly small businesses to successfully tender for council contracts and other stakeholder procurement processes. Later in the year we will be providing some specific additional support and training as well as an invitation to meet local buyers and hear about tender opportunities, by registering your business on the directory, you will be the first to hear about this.
If you have any questions, please email business@kingston.gov.uk
Accessing the Local Supplier Directory
If your organisation is looking to procure or share tender opportunities with Kingston upon Thames's local suppliers, please get in touch via business@kingston.gov.uk for a more detailed list and introductions. Please note:
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The directory is for research purposes only and the suppliers listed on it have not been assessed or evaluated in any way by Kingston Council
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By being listed on the directory the Council is not making any recommendation on their ability to provide goods, works or services
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Those using the local supplier directory should carry out their own due diligence before awarding a contract, for example ensuring that food and catering suppliers have a FSA Hygiene Rating of 3 or above.
An extract from the directory can be downloaded from the following link. This extract includes submissions from January 2024 to June 2024 and is refreshed quarterly