About LUPC
Established in 1968, LUPC is a not-for-profit professional buying organisation owned by its Members, for its Members. LUPC’s core membership is made up of universities and colleges of higher education in and around the capital. Around a third of LUPC’s membership is also drawn from other not-for-profit, public and third-sector organisations from our neighbouring sectors in the arts, sciences and education.
We are one of the four higher education purchasing consortia in England that together constitute English National Purchasing (ENP), the national body working to improve collaboration across the regional purchasing consortia and other sector purchasing organisations.
LUPC is a company limited by guarantee and is funded from membership subscriptions and marketing premiums added to some of our agreements. LUPC employs a small team at its Bloomsbury office location, working in conjunction with procurement professionals and other experts from our membership. LUPC’s Director is Andy Davies MBA FCIPS.
The main benefits of LUPC membership are:
Guaranteed savings | |
Typical savings that can be achieved by switching to LUPC agreements can be more than 30% on some agreements and we can help you by providing leakage reports based on your spend information. There is also a reduction in tendering costs for both buyers and suppliers. | |
Guaranteed compliance | |
Through a combination of EU Directives and UK case law, public procurement is becoming increasingly complex and vulnerable to litigation. All LUPC contracts and framework agreements are tendered by experts and are compliant with all relevant rules and regulations, thus minimising the risk of legal challenge | |
Access to a diverse portfolio of professionally arranged contracts | |
LUPC currently has more than 70 agreements in place, and are constantly adding to this portfolio. All our agreements are compliant with EU legislation. | |
Free access to Creditsafe | |
Access is available to a free credit referencing service, Creditsafe. This is a fast, consolidated, electronic means of accessing supplier credit information and helps to reduce business risk, while saving considerable expense in buying your own individual credit referencing service. | |
Free access to EU procurement advice | |
If you have a particular EU problem with the status of a procurement strategy or project under the legislation you can also get prompt free advice from Achilles through the LUPC agreement. | |
Free membership of The Energy Consortium (TEC) | |
Membership of The Energy Consortium (TEC) is included in your LUPC membership fee so you can put all your energy procurement through them. | |
A monthly e-bulletin and quarterly magazine | |
Find out the latest on procurement projects, on procurement issues and the goings-on within LUPC. | |
Annual Members' savings reports | |
All our Members will be issued with an annual savings report, with spend information being made readily available on an agreement-by-agreement basis via the new LUPC website. | |
Excellent opportunities for collaboration | |
LUPC provide networking opportunities with colleagues from different institutions and share best practice. | |
Last year, our Members spent £159m through our supply agreements, saving £25.6m in the process. On average, our Members receive £73 in savings for every £1 in subscription fees.