Free Guide: Braintree Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Braintree District Council · Non-metropolitan district · East of England
Data covering 2016 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£143.4m
Transactions
22,389
Suppliers
1,179
Key Takeaways
- £143.4 million in recorded spend across 22,389 transactions from 2016 to 2026
- 1,179 identified suppliers with an unconcentrated market at HHI 575
- 49 tenders published worth £80.8 million, all 11 recent contracts awarded through open competition
How big a buyer is Braintree?
Braintree District Council covers 236 square miles of Essex with a population of around 153,000. It's a non-metropolitan district, so you're looking at a mid-tier buyer rather than a county-level spender. That said, our data shows £143.4 million in recorded spend across 22,389 transactions, drawn from 69 source files and covering 2016 to 2026. We've matched 1,196 suppliers to company records across that period. The council's published contracts total £13.3 million across 29 records, while 49 tenders are worth a combined £80.8 million. For a district council, that's a busy procurement operation. The spending data comes from braintree.gov.uk and Find a Tender, collected through to November 2025. If you're scoping district councils in the East of England, Braintree is clearly active in publishing its procurement pipeline.
One firm takes a big slice, but the market stays open
Hour Construction Ltd sits at the top of the identified supplier list with £21 million in recorded spend, roughly 14.6% of the total. Balfour Beatty follows at £8.2 million, then Essex County Cars at £5.7 million. The top five suppliers account for 41.7% of spend, and the top ten for 52.7%. But with an HHI of 575, this is an unconcentrated market. Across 1,179 identified suppliers, the spend is fairly well distributed beyond that top tier. Professional and technical services lead the sector breakdown at 25% of spend, followed by construction at 17.1% and administrative support at 16.6%. Wholesale and retail trade takes 13.5%, partly driven by firms like Ernest Doe & Sons and Essex County Cars. IT spend sits at 5.2%, with Civica the largest identified supplier in that space at £1.3 million. The spread across sectors suggests varied procurement needs.
Every contract went through open tender, so what's the catch?
Based on the contracts we've tracked with procurement method data, all 11 were awarded through open procedure. That's unusual. Most councils show at least some direct awards or restricted tenders in their mix. The median contract value is £500,000, and 10 of the 11 sit above the procurement threshold. On the pipeline side, Braintree has published 49 tenders worth £80.8 million, which gives you a decent window into upcoming and recent opportunities. There's no consortium activity in our data for Braintree, so the council appears to procure independently rather than through shared buying arrangements. For bid managers, the open procedure rate and the volume of published tenders point to a council that runs competitive processes. Whether that pattern holds across all their buying or just the contracts published through formal channels is a fair question to keep in mind.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | HOUR CONSTRUCTION LTD | £20,985,432 |
| 2 | BALFOUR BEATTY CIVIL ENGINEERING (SW) LIMITED | £8,167,670 |
| 3 | ESSEX COUNTY CARS LTD | £5,686,814 |
| 4 | RIVERSIDE TRUCK RENTAL LIMITED | £4,694,695 |
| 5 | ERNEST DOE & SONS LIMITED | £4,168,141 |
| 6 | FIRST CALL CONTRACT SERVICES LIMITED | £3,902,511 |
| 7 | DENNIS EAGLE LIMITED | £2,642,453 |
| 8 | BEARDWELL CONSTRUCTION LIMITED | £2,048,065 |
| 9 | CONTRACTS SUPPORT SERVICES LIMITED | £1,598,205 |
| 10 | CIVICA UK LIMITED | £1,327,068 |
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.
