SAPOL joins army in snubbing SA boots
The CEO of Rossi Boots has revealed SA police officers have been snubbing the company in favour of imported footwear.
It comes just a day after it was revealed the local manufacturer had lost a tender to make around 100,000 boots for the Australian army to an Indonesian shoemaker.
Neville Hayward told 891 ABC radio this morning Rossi had been supplying custom-designed boots to SAPOL for around 20 years, but over the past year, officers have been choosing imported boots instead.
“We’ve actually designed a boot specifically to their needs, so we listened to what they wanted, worked with SAPOL and actually created a specific boot for them,” he said.
“..but in more recent times – probably the last 12 months – we’ve found that on the whole SAPOL officers are selecting or wearing an imported boot.”
Hayward said the imported boots officers have been selecting recently are very different to the Rossi design, and that the state police force hadn’t let the company know of officers’ changing needs in their footwear.
“This boot is very different than what our offering was and our issue here was that we simply weren’t given the opportunity to develop a product that might meet the changing needs of SAPOL officers,” Hayward said.
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Despite this, Hayward commended the State Government for its initiatives to help SA businesses win tenders, particularly the establishment of a position in the bureaucracy to help local tenderers.
“I think what happened here with us that we probably fell through the cracks whilst this industry advocate was being established,” he said.
“Because it was an ongoing supply it didn’t really allow it to be to the scrutiny of what that policy document’s saying so I do think that the State Government should be really commended on at least trying to do the right thing and support local businesses.”
A spokesperson for SAPOL told InDaily it provides officers with a variety of footwear through a contracted uniform provider – including Rossi products.
“Police officers make a selection from the available footwear range based on what suits their operational needs and individual style or comfort,” the spokesperson said.
“The contracted uniform provided was selected by SAPOL and conformed with the relevant State Government procurement policies at that time. ”
Business SA CEO Nigel McBride said the experience of Rossi Boots was a “tragedy”, but one that is all to common in South Australia.
“What a tragedy for a great South Australian company,” he told 891 ABC radio.
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“[It has] been around for over 100 years, still family owned and is going to be one of the companies that’s going to be inducted into our 175 Hall of Fame this year.
“Their story is like so many small businesses, which says: we thought we pitched correctly, we thought we met the criteria, apparently we didn’t.”
“We’re trying to get a better break for small businesses at least for State Government tendering.”
Meanwhile, Small Business Minister Tom Koutsantonis launched the Tender Ready project this morning, which aims to give local businesses better information on how to win tenders.
“It will help businesses write better tenders, including how to structure responses, how to respond to tender requirements and how to present the business and product or service in a way that demonstrates why it should win the contract,” said Koutsantonis.
“It provides key information on how to best demonstrate capability and value for money, how to answer tender documents and how to deal with risk for Government in tenders.”
Business SA was commissioned to develop a report and a handbook for local businesses on how to win tenders.
The publications draw on the experiences of South Australian businesses which have come close but failed to win tenders in the past.
McBride said a lack of state government communication with local businesses had contributed to the failure of some local businesses to win tenders ahead of national and international competitors.
“One of the things that came up is availability of decision makers,” he said.
“How do small business get to talk to anybody to get them to explain, you know, how you win these things?”
“Another one is debriefing. It’s very scary for a small company who not got a tender to go to a government department and ask for a debrief … There should be very much – ‘we’d like to debrief you on what went wrong because we want you to succeed next time’.”
The full Tender Ready report and handbook can be accessed here.
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