Buy Canadian Promotion Campaign - Nielsen Grocery Scan Study

ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE
AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD CANADA – No. 01B68-19-0014
The Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has a requirement for the provision of customized data regarding retail sales of all foods and beverages that use claims and/or identifiers that brand them as Canadian products. The purpose of this Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) is to signal the government's intention to award a contract for these services to:
ACNielsen
160 McNabb Street
Markham, ON
L3R 4B8
Before awarding the contract, however, the government would like to provide other suppliers with the opportunity to demonstrate that they are capable of satisfying the requirements set out in this Notice, by submitting a statement of capabilities during the 15 calendar day posting period.
If other potential suppliers submit a statement of capabilities during the 15 calendar day posting period that meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, the government will proceed to a full tendering process on either the government's electronic tendering service or through traditional means, in order to award the contract.
If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a statement of capabilities meeting the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contract will be awarded to the pre-selected supplier, as referenced above.
Project Title:
Buy Canadian Promotion Campaign - Nielsen Grocery Scan Study
Background:
The food and beverage processing industry is the largest manufacturing sector in Canada with sales of about $114.9 billion in 2018, accounting for 17% of total manufacturing shipments. It is also the largest manufacturing employer and provides employment for 278,000 Canadians.
Findings from this research will support the implementation of promotional initiatives by identifying foods sold in Canada using specific Canadian claims and identifiers, as well as providing a baseline estimate of the consumer demand for these foods.
Objective:
The objective of the project is twofold:

To identify the labels of grocery foods sold in Canada currently using claims and identifiers such as Product of Canada, Made in Canada as well as provincial identifiers such as Foodland Ontario, Aliment du Québec, and other identifiers that promote Canada
To provide a baseline estimate of the consumer demand (in terms of value and volume) for foods bearing specific Canadian claims / identifiers (compared to overall product category data) to determine growth over the last year and current baseline measurement.

Scope of Work:
Nielsen will audit all food and non-alcoholic beverage items for human consumption in 30 stores across Canada. To ensure products scanned are representative of products available for sale across all of Canada, at least one store in each region should be:

Important and large enough that the great majority of national name brands will be captured (these are mostly duplicated across chains and across the country);
Representative of key retailers in each region and offer a good selection of regional brands and store brands exclusive to a particular region or that specific chain.

Product characteristics captured as part of the audit will be collected and full item listings of the items audited within each of the categories will be provided.  Sales data to be provided will be total category and “claim” level with the claim totals defined as:
Claim
Explanation and Examples
Product of Canada
All products that meet the requirements for the Product of Canada Claim
Made in Canada
All statements should include a qualifying statement to indicate that the food product is made in Canada from imported ingredients or combination of imported and domestic ingredients.
Example: Proudly Made in Canada from imported ingredients
Other Domestic Content Claims
Examples: Prepared in Canada, Grown in Canada, Refined in Canada, Canned in Canada, Processed in Canada, Packaged in Canada.
100% Canadian claims on foods or ingredients
Examples: Made with 100% Canadian milk,
Made with 100% Canadian wheat
Local, Regional, Provincial Claims
Examples: Aliments du Québec, Aliments prepares au Québec, Foodland Ontario, Manitoba Made, Ontario Peaches, made with pure Québec maple syrup, any other regional identification
Promotion of a Canadian company
Examples: Proud Canadian Company, A proudly Canadian company
Organic
Foods with the Canadian Organic Certification Logo
Note that these items should be listed separately from the others as the organic certification logo may include a maple leaf but it does not necessarily confer Canadian Origin.
Exclusions:

Country of origin statements outside of the list above
Grading statements: Having a grade statement does not necessarily mean that the food is a product of or made in Canada.
Canadian address: A Canadian address is required by law but is not helpful information as imported items need to include a distributor / importer address as per CFIA regulations.

Period: The most recent 52-week period of data and corresponding year ago period.
Region: National
Channels: Grocery Banners + Mass Merchandisers
Nielsen will provide a national summary analysis and excel output for each category, which will contain the value and volume (# of units) of the following:

The 260+ product categories
The number of items (SKUs) for each of the 7 claims noted above within each product category.

The objective is to obtain an indication of share of overall sales and volume for the product category as well, the growth of products with Canadian identification noted above and how the value and volume compares to the remaining products as well as the overall product category.
Deliverables And Schedule:
Nielsen will prepare the following deliverables to the satisfaction of the Project Authority.
1) By March 31, 2020, Nielsen will have conducted the majority of the audit of the 30 stores and will provide AAFC with an interim report of the products items collected.
2) By June 30, 2020, Nielsen will provide by email, directly to the Project Authority a report in Microsoft Excel containing all of the information listed in Section 5.0.
Location of Work:
The work for this project will be conducted at the Contractor’s location. Any travel expense incurred as a result of this project will be the sole responsibility of the Contractor. AAFC will not assume any travel expense resulting from this contract.
Minimum Essential Qualifications:
To fulfill the requirements of the contract, any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it has the capacity to provide the same information that is listed above.
Government of Canada Regulations Exception:
The Treasury Board’s Government Contract Regulations, Part 10.2.1 Section 6 states there are four exceptions that permit the contracting authority to set aside the requirement to solicit bids. The exception for related to this ACAN includes:
d. “only one supplier person or firm is capable of performing the contract.”
Limited Tendering Provisions In Accordance With The Trade Agreements:
The North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization - Agreement on Government Procurement, and the Agreement on Internal Trade permit the contracting authority to set aside the requirement to solicit bids under the following condition:
b) “For works of art, reasons connected with protecting patents, copyrights, other exclusive rights, or proprietary information or where there is an absence for technical reasons, the goods or services can be supplied by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists”
Justification for the Pre-Selected Supplier:
Given its proprietary databases of scanned sales transactions at retail point of sale, the Nielsen company of Canada is uniquely and solely positioned to provide comprehensive market information for food sales at retail in Canada. This data is not available from any other supplier as Nielsen has exclusive rights to retail data.
Contract Period:
The resulting contract will be valid from date of contract award extending to June 30, 2020.
Estimate of Costs:
It is intended to award a service contract to the supplier for an amount of $200,000.00 CAD plus applicable taxes.
Project Authority:
Bonnie Cohen
Sector Specialist, Market and Industry Service Branch
Food Industry Division, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
1341 Baseline Road, Tower 5, Floor 4, Room 338,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0C5
Telephone: (613) 773-2758 Fax: (613) 773-0300
Email: b••••••••@••••••.ca
Contracting Authority:
Rhonda DiMarco
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Professional Services Contracting Unit
1341 Baseline Road, Tower 5, Floor 2,
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C5
Tel: (613) 773-0934
Email: r••••••••@••••••.ca
Suppliers Right to Submit a Statement of Capabilities:
Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to meet the specified requirements, may submit a Statement of Capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this Notice on or before the closing date of this notice.
The Statement of Capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements. Statements of Capabilities must be delivered to and received by the Contracting Authority on or before the closing date.
The closing date and time for accepting Statements of Capabilities is: Friday January 3rd, 2020 at 12:00 P.M. (EST, Ottawa time) to the following address:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Professional Services Contracting Unit
1341 Baseline Road, Tower 5, Floor 2,
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C5
Rhonda DiMarco
Tel: (613) 773-0934
Email: r••••••••@•••.••.ca
Requisition Number: ACAN no. 01B68-19-0014
Statements of Capabilities must be mailed or faxed on or before the closing date. Statement of Capabilities received on or before the closing date will be considered solely for the purpose of deciding whether or not to conduct a more extensive tendering process. Information provided will be used by the Crown for technical evaluation purposes only with respect to a decision to proceed to a further competitive process. Suppliers that have submitted a Statement of Capabilities will be notified in writing of AAFC's decision to proceed to award the contract without a further additional tendering process.
Should you have any questions concerning this requirement, contact the Contracting Officer identified above. The AAFC Solicitation Number (01B68-19-0014), the Contracting Officer's name and the closing date of the ACAN must appear on the outside of the envelope in block letters or, in the case of facsimile transmission, on the covering page.
The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement. Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.