Free Guide: Bolton Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council · Metropolitan district · North West
Data covering 2011 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£1.2bn
Transactions
192,334
Suppliers
3,903
Key Takeaways
- £1.19 billion in recorded spend across 192,334 transactions since 2011
- 3,942 matched suppliers with an unconcentrated HHI of 111, the top 5 taking just 16.2%
- £200 million in tender pipeline value across 62 published tenders
£1.19 billion and counting: how big a buyer is Bolton?
Bolton is a metropolitan borough of 288,000 people sitting within Greater Manchester, and our data shows it is a busy buyer. Across 192,334 payment transactions dating from 2011 to 2026, the council has recorded spend of £1.19 billion. That is drawn from 115 source files collected from procontract.due-north.com, bolton.gov.uk, and Find a Tender. On the contracts side, we hold 75 published contracts worth a combined £33.3 million, with a median contract value of around £6.6 million. But the tender pipeline tells a bigger story: 62 tenders worth £200.2 million in total. That gap between contract value and tender value is worth noting. It suggests a good volume of upcoming or recently opened opportunities flowing through Bolton's procurement system. If you are scanning Greater Manchester boroughs for pipeline, Bolton's numbers look solid based on the records we hold.
Who's getting paid, and is anyone dominating?
Short answer: no one is dominating. Bolton's HHI is just 111, which is very low. The top five identified suppliers account for only 16.2% of recorded spend, and even the top ten take just 25.7%. Spend is spread widely across 3,942 matched suppliers. Agilisys leads with £44.2 million in IT and communications spend. MJR Facilities Management follows at £26 million, then Bolton At Home at £22.7 million. Construction firms feature heavily, with Willmott Dixon (£21.6 million), Bethell Construction (£21.3 million), and J. Hopkins (£13.5 million) all in the top ten. By sector, health and social work pulls the most spend at 28.6% of the total, followed by construction at 13.5% and information and communications at 11.3%. Admin and support services round out the picture at 10%. You will also find 505 suppliers in the health sector alone, so competition there looks broad.
Three out of four contracts went to open tender. What does that tell you?
Of the four contracts with procurement method data, three were awarded through open competition and one through a selective process. That is a small sample, so treat it carefully, but there are no direct awards in the set. Three contracts sat above the procurement threshold, one below. The median contract value of £6.6 million puts Bolton firmly in the territory of larger packages rather than lots of small-scale work. Meanwhile, the 62 tenders we have tracked are worth a combined £200.2 million, which means the average tender opportunity runs well into seven figures. Bolton does not appear to rely on consortium arrangements based on our records. For a metropolitan district within GMCA, the buying pattern looks relatively straightforward: larger contract packages, open procedures, and a broad supplier base. Whether that holds as more data comes through is an open question.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AGILISYS LIMITED | £44,193,153 |
| 2 | MJR FACILITIES MANAGEMENT LIMITED | £26,018,212 |
| 3 | BOLTON AT HOME LIMITED | £22,653,495 |
| 4 | WILLMOTT DIXON CONSTRUCTION LIMITED | £21,597,033 |
| 5 | BETHELL CONSTRUCTION LIMITED | £21,270,651 |
| 6 | FEDERATED HERMES LIMITED | £20,000,000 |
| 7 | BOLTON COMMUNITY LEISURE LIMITED | £17,627,389 |
| 8 | SPECIALIST RECRUITMENT SERVICES LIMITED | £15,383,902 |
| 9 | BOLTON CARES LIMITED | £13,942,400 |
| 10 | J. HOPKINS (CONTRACTORS) LIMITED | £13,513,492 |
About Us
CouncilLedger brings together spending records, contract awards, and tender notices from over 400 UK local authorities into one procurement intelligence platform. Our data covers 16 years of transactions, collected directly from council transparency publications and government procurement platforms. Search suppliers, track spending trends, discover tender opportunities, and monitor the contracts that matter to your business.
