Every public contract a competitor wins is, sooner or later, on the public record. You do not need a subscription to an intelligence service to learn from that, just a methodical way of reading it.
What you can learn
- Where they are winning. A rival that starts winning in a new region or with a new type of buyer is expanding, and may be stretched there.
- What they charge. Where award values are stated, they give a rough sense of pricing for comparable scope, allowing for the fact that scope rarely matches exactly.
- When their contracts end. This is the most useful thing of all. A competitor's contract nearing its end is an opportunity for you.
- Who they work for repeatedly. Buyers that keep returning to the same supplier are either very satisfied or have not seen an alternative.
What you cannot learn
- How their bids scored. Under the Procurement Act 2023, assessment summaries go to the suppliers who bid, not to the public.
- Their margins, or how the contract is going. An award notice records a decision, not delivery.
- Everything they win. Unadvertised quotes and some framework call-offs never appear.
Match on the company, not the name
The same firm appears under different spellings across notices, with and without "Ltd", with trading names and old names. Searching on a name misses some wins while looking complete. A Companies House number identifies the company reliably, so use it wherever a notice carries one.
Keep it professional
This is public information and studying it is ordinary commercial practice. It is not a basis for comments about a competitor in a bid, and a buyer will not thank you for them. Use what you learn to sharpen your own offer.
On Bidwire
Signed in, you can watch up to 25 competitors. Matching is on the supplier's identity, not the spelling of its name, and only companies with a Companies House number can be watched. When a watched firm wins a contract, it appears in your weekly digest with the buyer, the value and the date, and the section only appears when there is something to report.