My Local Buy Story - CEA

Article by Glenn McLeod, CEA National Government Business Manager, Tender Desk, Backhoe Sales Manager & Sales Mentor and CEA 

Boasting a rich history spanning over 40 years, CEA was established as part of the CFC Group of Companies and has grown to become a reputable supplier for local government and procurement professionals nationwide. With a focus on quality and providing access to top-of-the-line equipment from industry leading brands, we offer a diverse product portfolio catering to various construction needs from material handling, construction, road compaction and paving, generators and air compressors, waste and petroleum, lubricant storage and distribution.

During the 20 years that we’ve been a pre-qualified supplier on Local Buy Arrangements, we’ve supplied a diverse range of equipment to many councils in Queensland and the Northern Territory, with JCB Backhoe Loaders being one of the most favoured and market-leading product lines.

We’ve supplied councils all over Queensland and the NT with major Multiple Fleet Purchases for Gold Coast City, Logan City, Moreton Bay City, Sunshine Coast Regional, Noosa Shire, Bundaberg Regional, Gladstone Regional, Western Downs Regional, Ipswich City, Scenic Rim Regional, Southern Downs Regional, Townsville City, North Burnett Regional, Quilpie Shire, Barkly  Shire Council NT, West Daley Regional NT, Roper Gulf Council NT and the list goes on. There are not many Councils in Queensland and the Northern Territory that CEA has not worked with over the last 20 years.  

I recall when Local Buy approached CEA with the VendorPanel methodology, versus the previous way of advertising tenders with Local Government. I remember when this involved scouring the newspapers for advertised tenders, followed by countless hours putting together paper submissions and manually lodging them in tender boxes at council offices before the deadline. Each council tender had its own set of commercial conditions and terms which proved time-consuming and required extensive resources to manage.

The proposal documentation has been complimented numerous times by councils and we’ve had feedback that this has been instrumental in winning council bids. 

As advocates for the simplified process, CEA encourages councils to use the Local Buy Arrangements and promotes the utilisation of the NPN 2.15 contact as much as possible, with around 90% of all our RFQs received via Local Buy Arrangements. 

“As a founding member of the Arrangement CEA continues to be a strong advocate for this purchasing process and we can’t speak highly enough about the support that we received from Local Buy. Over the 20 plus years we have been a pre-qualified supplier we have never had a dispute or any issue with Local Buy which is really saying something over such a long period as there are not too many relationships that last this long. It speaks volumes for the professionalism of the Local Buy team”, - Glenn McLeod, CEA National Government Business Manager

CEA looks forward to maintaining our pre-qualified supplier status on the Local Buy Arrangements and believes that the future of doing streamlined business with councils will only evolve and deliver greater returns for councils, vendors, and other entities who use the platform. 

The key to our success is product support. Our regional dealerships enhance the reach, providing support in some of the most remote areas of QLD & NT. When an RFQ is requested, it is a seamless process of collaborating with the Dealer Group and submitting the proposal with the Dealer that is authorised through the Local Buy network with the submission formatted by the CEA Central Tender Desk (CTD) in Brisbane on behalf of the Dealer. If it is regional, this ensures the look and feel of the content are the same for all proposals and presentations whether it be Tennent Creek or the Gold Coast.

Today CEA offers a vast portfolio of machinery thanks to its suite of class leading brands including JCB, Dynapac, Ditch Witch, Atlas Copco, Komptech, Ring-O-Matic and Diamond Z. With a product to suit just about every application, combined with their extensive network of regional JCB dealers across over 80 locations throughout Australia and in Queensland alone across Brisbane, Toowoomba, Dalby, Sunshine Coast, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Mackay, Ayr, Townsville, Ingham, Innisfail, Cairns and Tolga and Darwin. CEA has both the machinery and the aftersales support customers are looking for when purchasing new equipment.

Like to know more about CEA? Visit their website www.cea.net.au.