Corporate workwear

Mandatory Contracts take a variety of forms, including higher education framework agreements and pre-agreed contracts. They have a different purchasing route depending on the nature of the product and the University’s operations. The routes are:

• In-house: Goods/services that are provided by a LU department
• Internally co-ordinated: Goods/services provided by an external supplier but managed via a LU department
• Supplier direct: The procurer will liaise directly with the supplier
• Supplier direct (eCatalogue): The procurer will select the goods/services from our bespoke catalogue using Agresso

We currently internally co-ordinate the supply of corporate workwear ensuring brand, quality and sustainability targets are met at all times. Through bulk purchasing we achieve significant savings on the products purchased by campus.

We take full ownership of the supplier relationship and all brand and quality approvals so that any issues that may arise can be dealt with swiftly and effectively whilst ensuring colleagues have a direct self-service route to products they need.

Arco have a wide range of own products that are quality approved by our in-house team and are quality matched to some of the higher market products we have previously paid for. As a result, we will get the same fit for purpose but at a reduced cost. We are managing this product review and selection process on the University’s behalf.

The agreed catalogue will be made available through Unit 4 PunchOut.

The initial list of products is based on the most frequently purchased items, with a second phase catalogue expansion following later based on individual School and Department needs.

Student t-shirts (purchased by them for activities, events and freshers) are available through the Branded Merchandise mandatory contract.

Schools and departments can discuss additional items for the catalogue with Arco direct, and all requests are quality and brand approved by Brand, Creative and Digital Production (BDCP) before they are added to the catalogue and made available for order.

Standard logo artwork has already been approved by BDCP.

At the point of order, schools and departments can request messaging content on new products. All requests will be reviewed by BDCP before anything is produced. This will affect turnaround time.

Arco has significant experience in suitability of products and branding methods. They will steer the University in this and as a result you may see items branded differently to the previous contract.

As branded content is agreed, the University Brand Portal will be updated to reflect this. Schools and departments should always visit the Brand Portal first for guidance on what is approved and what is not.

The university Sustainability Strategy and Sustainable Event Management ISO accreditation will strongly drive the approval decisions that BDCP make.

Schools and departments will be able to place orders directly through Unit 4 Punchout

All workwear orders should be created in Unit 4 Punchout using one of the following product codes as appropriate:

P_DE  Medical, Surgical, Nursing - clothing

P_HF  Clothing, safety and protective supplies and services

P_HR  Clothing (Uniforms, Corp, Security, Academic Gowns), Tailoring

P_HS  Footwear, safety and protective, supplies and services

P_LI  Laboratory clothing

P_UDA  Safety and personal protection – general

All orders for workwear will be subject to Technical Approval within Unit 4. 

All orders should have the delivery address detailed in Unit 4 as follows before sending to Arco.

Turnaround is broken down into three different elements:

Supplier Production:

Standard turnaround is 2 weeks.

If production is likely to exceed this window due to print complexity or order volume Arco will notify the person placing the order.

Brand Review and Approval:

All workwear requests for new products to be added to the catalogue will require a branding and quality check.

3 weeks should be allowed for this.

Design/Artwork Creation:

New artwork must be created by BDCP to ensure brand compliance.

3 weeks should be allowed for the creation of artwork

The total turnaround for a designed workwear product will take a minimum of 8 weeks

The name of the person that placed the order, the PO number and their School/Department name will be detailed on the delivery label on the outside of the box and on the delivery note within the box.

All orders will be batch delivered to the central Mailroom in the Herbert Manzoni Building, or the Reception Desk in London as per the delivery label detail.

Deliveries on the Loughborough campus will be distributed to schools and departments on the scheduled rounds undertaken by our Post & Logistics team.

This will help to control the number of vans driving around campus and reduce the number of deliveries to your space.

All incoming parcels are logged to our Parcel Tracker system under the name of the recipient detailed on the parcel label. The system will send an email confirming receipt.

Boxes will only contain one order.

All invoices will be emailed to Accounts.Payable@lboro.ac.uk and will detail the PO number raised for it in line with the University’s No Purchase Order, No Pay Policy

Invoices will not be paid if sent through any other route.

Orders will not and cannot be be paid for using credit card