IN Brief:
- Gilbert-Ash is bringing a series of Epic Campus construction packages to market through Somerset Supply Chain.
- Published opportunities include £2m drylining, £1m–£3m low-voltage electrical work, and £2m–£5m pipework and ventilation.
- Further packages are expected through 2026 and 2027 as construction progresses across the Long Ashton campus.
A new round of construction and building-services packages is being brought to market for Epic Systems’ campus at Long Ashton, with Gilbert-Ash opening opportunities across structure, services, fit-out, and materials as phased construction advances.
The packages range from £500,000 of scaffolding and £700,000–£800,000 of brickwork to £2m of drylining, £1m–£3m of low-voltage electrical work, and £2m–£5m of pipework and ventilation. Further opportunities cover soft flooring, painting and decorating, doors and joinery, fitted furniture, tiling, signage, builders’ merchants, and material supply.
North Somerset Council says several packages are expected to progress during 2026 and 2027, with further scopes entering the market as construction moves through later phases. Suppliers are being connected with the programme through Somerset Chamber of Commerce’s Somerset Supply Chain portal.
The release creates a more detailed picture of downstream expenditure on a project that has previously been discussed mainly in terms of its overall scale and planning significance. Individual values show where substantial portions of the construction workload are beginning to separate into packages that regional contractors can actually tender.
The campus is being developed as Epic Systems’ European headquarters on land between Long Ashton and Bristol. The approved development extends across roughly 90 acres and includes three office buildings within the detailed planning element, together with a culinary building, training centre, and 3,000-seat auditorium. Two further office buildings form part of the outline permission.
Infrastructure is equally extensive. Planning material includes new highway accesses, internal roads and footpaths, drainage, public realm, landscaping, ancillary plant, a solar photovoltaic field, below-ground car and cycle parking, and a geothermal borefield. Subsequent amendments have refined individual buildings, utilities, parking, access, drainage, and landscaping as detailed design has developed.
That mix produces a long construction sequence with numerous interfaces between trades. Building-services contractors cannot work independently of structure and envelope progress, fit-out packages depend on areas becoming weather-tight, and external infrastructure must be completed in a sequence that maintains access for later construction traffic.
The electrical package, valued between £1m and £3m, will have to integrate with a campus carrying substantial office, training, catering, auditorium, and energy demands. Pipework and ventilation, valued between £2m and £5m, will interface with different occupancy densities and operating patterns across the development, creating coordination requirements well beyond those of a single-use office block.
Drylining, joinery, flooring, decoration, fitted furniture, and signage will follow at later stages, widening the procurement opportunity to companies that do not operate in major structural or MEP packages. The range of tenders also means company size will vary considerably across the supply chain, from large specialist contractors to smaller businesses supplying finishes, materials, and local services.
The procurement programme is being supported by a five-year initiative funded through a Section 106 agreement between North Somerset Council and Epic Systems Corporation. Somerset Chamber has been appointed to the first phase of the business-engagement and supply chain support programme, mapping regional capability and connecting companies with upcoming tender opportunities.
The portal is intended to make local companies visible before packages are awarded rather than after principal contractors have already assembled their preferred supply chains. Registration does not guarantee work, and suppliers still have to meet the commercial, technical, safety, quality, and programme requirements attached to each contract, but it creates an earlier route into the procurement process.
That timing is particularly relevant on a multi-year scheme. Contractors that miss the first structural packages may still be suitable for later MEP, envelope, fit-out, landscape, or material scopes, while companies already engaged on one phase may be able to compete for subsequent work as the campus expands.
Construction on a development of this size also places demands on coordination away from the individual buildings. Deliveries, compound space, haul routes, temporary utilities, cranes, access control, workforce facilities, waste movements, and neighbouring roads must support several packages running concurrently without allowing one contractor’s logistics to disrupt another’s programme.
The site sits in the Green Belt, where planning approval relied partly on the economic benefits attached to Epic’s investment. North Somerset Council has previously estimated that the expansion could support more than 2,000 jobs and contribute around £140m annually to the regional economy once the campus is established.
Those forecasts relate to the completed development rather than guaranteed construction expenditure, but they explain the emphasis placed on local economic participation during delivery. The Section 106 supply chain programme provides a mechanism for testing how much of the construction opportunity can be captured by businesses around North Somerset rather than simply counting the jobs expected after occupation.
The first office building is currently anticipated to be ready for occupation in the second quarter of 2028. That leaves a substantial run of procurement and construction before handover, with services, fit-out, external works, testing, commissioning, and later phases still to follow the current trade-package releases.
The latest tenders therefore mark a practical change in the project’s maturity. Epic Campus has moved beyond planning documents and headline investment figures into a stage where named packages, values, and procurement routes are appearing. For the regional construction market, the opportunity is now increasingly measured in defined scopes of work rather than in the eventual size of the finished campus.
