Request For Information_SPV_Southern Europe.pdf

This is a request for information (RFI). DLA Troop Support’s Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS) Subsistence Prime Vendor (SPV) Program is interested in your comments regarding contracts for full-service food support to our military and authorized land customers located in Southern Europe as well as for authorized Navy ship customers located in Northern/Southern Europe and Northern/Western Africa.

There is no solicitation available currently. The Government will not pay for any information received in response to this RFI, nor will the Government compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing the information provided to the Government. This RFI does not constitute a commitment from the Government and any information provided in response to this market survey will be used for informational purposes only. Any proprietary information submitted will be protected if appropriately marked as such. Vendor participation is not a promise for future business with the Government. The sole purpose of this RFI is to conduct Market Research.

OCONUS SPV support includes, but is not limited to, sourcing food items; receiving and consolidating product; warehousing and inventory management, quality control, quality assurance, and inspections; transportation and security of product, personnel management, and meeting required delivery dates, and extensive reporting requirements. The Government also require storage of Operational Rations and/or other Government Furnished Material at an

OCONUS SPV’s facilities. OCONUS SPV support is subject to several applicable regulations, including the Berry Amendment, 10 U.S.C. 4862, which generally requires that food items purchased by the Department of Defense must be grown, reprocessed, or produced in the United States or its possessions, and the Cargo Preference Act.

Please consider responding to the following questions and provide responses to the Government:

1. Please provide the name of your Company and point of contact information. If your company has a Cage Code, please provide that as well.

2. Does your firm have any experience operating as a Subsistence Prime Vendor? If not, does your firm have any long-term contracting experience performing requirements like OCONUS SPV requirements? Please describe your firm and identify who your firm’s major customers are, for example, logistics, food distribution?

3. Do you believe your firm can successfully perform the requirements discussed above in the third paragraph of this RFI? If so, please explain why. If not, please explain why.

4. Is your firm a U.S. domestic firm or a foreign entity?

5. If your firm is not a U.S. domestic firm, what is your firm’s country of origin, and what is your firm’s country of primary operations?

6. Is your firm considered a large or small business concern as defined by the Small Business Administration Regulations?

7. Historically, SPV contracts for land customers located in Southern Europe had contract terms of five years and sales in this region have been estimated around $55 million per year. Sales for Navy Ship customers for these same terms have been estimates around $47 million per year. Product sales (e.g., trucking; airlifts;

transportation officers and other field service personnel) are included in the sales estimate. Can your firm manage this volume? What is the revenue generated from product moving through your warehouse on an annual basis? Is revenue generated from any other source associated with the aforementioned warehouse? If so, explain?

8. Subsistence Prime Vendor support include, but is not limited to, sourcing food items;

receiving and consolidating product; warehousing and inventory management; quality control, quality assurance, and inspections; transportation and security of product, personnel management, meeting required delivery dates, and extensive reporting requirements.

Southern Europe land customers consists of the following Countries:

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Azores, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Crete, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Lebanon, Macedonia, Madeira, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Sardinia, Serbia, Sicily, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey.

Northern/Southern Europe and Northern/Western Africa Navy Ship customers consists of the following Countries:

Aegean Sea Islands, Netherlands, Algeria, Norway, Albania, Poland, Balearic Islands, Portugal, Belgium, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sardinia, Bulgaria, Sea of Crete Islands, Canary Islands, Serbia, Corsica, Slovenia, Croatia, Sweden, Cyprus, France, Tunisia, Georgia, Turkey, Germany, Ukraine, Greece, United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, and Spain.

*Note: These countries represent the current Ports of Call for Navy Ship customers. During the life of any future contract, Ports of Call may beaded to any country listed in Northern/Southern Europe and Northern/Western Africa at no additional cost to the Government.

DLA Troop Support land customers in Southern Europe have been supported by one or more warehouse platforms within Southern Europe. Navy Ship customers have been supported by one or more warehouse platforms within Southern and Northern Europe. Does your firm currently have a warehouse platform(s) in these regions that would be able to support land and Navy ship customers? If not, does your firm have the capabilities to stand up a warehouse platform in either of these regions in Europe? Do you feel it would be more feasible to establish more than one warehouse platform to meet land and Navy ship customer requirements?

Identify any constraints that may prevent your firm from developing warehouse platforms in these regions. Note: sales estimates are identified above in question 7.

9.

Navy Ships include the following special requirements:

1.For deliveries to large deck U.S ships (CVN/LHA/LHD Ship Classes) or CLF ships, the following applies:

a. When a CVN/LHA/LHD or Resupply ship is the ultimate consignee:

1)Palletized material shall not exceed 48” in height, including the pallet.

2)All pads must be commercial fiberboard, 40"X48", positioned on the pallets before loading. The unit load bonding material must consist of strappings: two-girth wise and three lengthwise. Bonding material shall be threaded through the strapping slots on the pallet to form a consolidated, stable cargo, which can be handled as a unit or commercially shrink-wrapped.

3)All shipments of bagged products susceptible to breakage/leakage such as flour, sugar, salt and rice must be further packaged in a tri-wall container.

b. When other than a CVN/LHA/LHD or CLF ship is the ultimate consignee:

1)Palletized material shall not exceed 40” in height, including the pallet.

2)Pallets shall be double shrink-wrapped. Is your firm able to comply with these special Navy Ship requirements listed above?

Does your firm have experience delivering items to Navy Ships?

10. Transportation from the Continental United States (CONUS) to Southern Europe via the Defense Transportation System (DTS) is generally required. The Prime Vendor under a contract from a future solicitation may be required to use contracts established by the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) to move product into Southern Europe. (See questions below regarding applicability of Berry Amendment). As a result, the SPV Contractor will be responsible for preparing and requesting bookings and the USTRANSCOM carrier will be responsible for the transportation of the SPV Contractor’s products from the specified CONUS manufacturer or CONUS distribution facility to the SPV Contractor’s OCONUS distribution facilities. The Government will not be responsible for the risk of loss of product transported via DTS. Would your firm have any issues using the DTS system already established? Your firm will also be required to enter into agreements with the USTRANSCOM carriers, or carrier agreements, to address issues such as claims processing and dispute resolution for losses and damages to contractor cargo. DLA Troop Support will not be involved with carrier agreements, negotiations, or disputes between the carriers and proposed vendors. Would your firm have any issues with this requirement?

11. The Prime Vendor may be required to execute intra-country airlifts to meet delivery requirements to our customers that cannot be fulfilled by ground transportation. Do you have a working arrangement in place with a commercial air source that has the ability to provide this type of support, including the ability to tri-wall and utilize dry ice or other temperature control measures when necessary? Any suggestion that demonstrates new or creative ways to meet our customer’s requirements would be appreciated.

12. In addition to an ability to provide domestic products from the United States, a firm may also need to provide Local Market Ready (LMR) items such as fresh eggs from the local economy under any future procurement that may be solicited. Do you currently have any affiliations with local Europe LMR providers? If not, does your firm have the ability to get affiliated with local Europe LMR providers?

13. After placing their orders, many land customers expect delivery within 2 days and Navy ship customers expect delivery within 3-12 days which is qualified as being the normal course of delivery for these customers. Can you accommodate these delivery schedules for these customers and how?

14. What is your normal lead time for orders? Under what circumstances do you have the ability to fill orders with shorter than the anticipated lead time of 2 days (land customers) and 3-12 days (Navy ship customers)?

15. A Surge Requirement is one that could increase the normal orders by 300% in which you would be required to satisfy requirements for emergency situations (i.e., ramp up to meet early requirements (surge) and/or requirements that may exceed estimated annual quantities). DLA defines surge as the ability to ramp up quickly to meet early requirements normally needed within the first 30 days of a contingency. Sustainment is defined as the ability to sustain an increased pace throughout the contingency(s) for six months or longer. A surge situation is defined as an increase in military feeding of 300% of peacetime demand for a period of up to 30 days. How would you be able to accommodate this increase? What would be the time frame needed to attain these increased quantities? Will your company be able to operate at this increased output of products for a period of 6 months or longer? If not, what are some of the reasons why you would not be able to operate at this elevated demand and not meet the surge requirement?

16. The terms of the Berry Amendment, 10 U.S.C. 4862, will likely apply to items under any solicitation that is issued and the resulting contract. In general, items that are subject to the Berry Amendment must be grown, reprocessed, or produced in the United States or its possessions, see DFARS Clause 252.225-7012. Can you provide Berry Amendment compliant/United States domestic products?

17. 17.As far as shelf life of delivered products, the following applies: All products delivered shall be as fresh as possible and within the manufacturer’s original shelf life (i.e., Best if Used by Date, Expiration Date, or other markings). Chilled products shall not be frozen in an attempt to extend the products’ shelf life, unless approved by the Contracting Officer. For annual pack items, products will be from the latest seasonal pack available, unless approved in advance by the Contracting Officer. For items produced with a shelf life greater than 150 days, no product shall be delivered to customers with less than 30 days manufacturer’s original shelf life remaining unless the customer and Contracting Officer grant prior written approval. For items produced with shelf life less than 150 days, no product shall be delivered to customers with less than 5 days manufacturer’s original shelf life remaining unless the customer and Contracting Officer grant prior written approval.

Would your business be able to comply with these requirements?

Some items such as LMR and FF&V items have shorter shelf life than most cataloged items. Would your company be able to deliver these types of products with the required amount of shelf life mentioned above?

We encourage, appreciate, and would like to thank you in advance for your participation in this RFI. Your responses, comments, suggestions, and ideas regarding support for both our Southern Europe land customers as well as our Northern/Southern Europe and Northern/Western Africa Navy ship customers are requested back by the close of business on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. Your responses may be sent via email to the following email addresses: andrew.sibson@dla.mil, john.oladele@dla.mil and meghan.freda@dla.mil

Contracting Office Address:

DLA Troop Support Philadelphia Directorate of Subsistence/Prime Vendor OCONUS 700 Robbins Avenue, Building 6 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19111-5096

Primary Points of Contact:

Andrew Sibson Contract Specialist andrew.sibson@dla.mil

John Oladele Contract Specialist john.oladele@dla.mil

Meghan Freda Contracting Officer meghan.freda@dla.mil mailto:andrew.sibson@dla.mil mailto:john.oladele@dla.mil mailto:meghan.freda@dla.mil