Animal Feed/Rodent Diet Wafers

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) located at Research Triangle Park, NC has a requirement for Rodent Diet Wafers. The North American Industry Classification System Code (NAICS) is 311119 and the business size is 500 employees. This is a market survey to identify capable potential small business sources including Service Disabled Veteran, Small Disadvantaged Business, Woman or Women Owned, 8(a), Veteran-owned, and HUBZone interested in providing Rodent Diet Wafers under a requirements/indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract basis for a period of one year and one-year option period. The contractor shall provide approximately 240,000 lbs of Rodent Diet, open formula - NIH-31 during the base year period. Tractor-trailer load deliveries of 1600 bags per order (80 bags/pallet, 20 pallets/truckload) will be ordered on an as needed basis, generally every two to three months. Packaging shall be in 50 lb capacity 3-ply laminated paper bags with 25 lbs. of product per bag that must withstand autoclaving at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. See the NIH-31 Work Statement and specification included as attachment to this notice. All interested small businesses are invited to submit a capabilities statement. The capability statement should be tailored to this notice and specifically address the company's capabilities to provide the NIH-31 rodent diet in accordance with the attached Work Statement/Specification. Additionally, the response must include past performance information on similar Government (including GSA or other GWAC) and non-government contracts and the dates those contracts were held. The cover letter submitted in response to this notice should include 1) company name, address, point of contact, telephone number, fax number, email address; 2) DUNS number; 3) the socioeconomic status of the company, i.e., small business concern, 8(a) business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, woman-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, and/or service-disabled veteran-owned small business; and 4) Small Business Certification, if any. All questions should be sent in writing via e-mail and received before the due date for response. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Capability Statements will not be returned. Firms are advised that this notice is not a Request for Proposals (RFP). No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this notice. Responses to this notice will not serve as a proposal, bid, or offer, and will not be used by the Government to form a binding contract. The sole purpose of this notice is to assess the capabilities and interests of small business concerns in performing these services so that a determination can be made on whether or not this requirement will be set-aside for small business. Once that determination has been made, a solicitation notice will be posted. Responses must be received no later than 12:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time), January 20, 2009, by either post office mail or email only, to the following address: NIH/NIEHS, Attn: Paula Pier, OM/Office of Acquisitions, P.O. Box 12874, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 (Physical address: NIH/NIEHS, Attn: Paula Pier, 530 Davis Drive, Durham, NC 27713); Email: pierp@niehs.nih.gov.