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UiPath & Marshalls overhaul bidding with AI pricing

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SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

UiPath has partnered with Marshalls to overhaul the UK building materials group’s bidding process with AI-based pricing software aimed at its project-led sales operations.

Marshalls sells landscaping, building and roofing products in a market where contractors often compete for the same jobs under tight deadlines. In that environment, pricing speed can influence whether a supplier wins work, while inconsistent discounting can erode margins.

Before the rollout, Marshalls relied largely on manual pricing processes and individual judgement, limiting the speed and consistency of bid responses. UiPath’s Quote Pricing product now brings Marshalls’ pricing data into a single platform and applies AI models within set controls, including regional pricing rules and margin thresholds.

The system is designed to let sales teams produce quotes in real time while staying within internal pricing limits. According to the companies, it has led to faster bid responses, more consistent pricing decisions, and higher net margin alongside increased revenue.

The move reflects a wider push by manufacturers to use software in commercial decision-making rather than only in back-office processes. Pricing has been one of the harder areas to standardise because sales teams often have to balance market conditions, local competition and internal profit targets in a short time.

For Marshalls, centralising pricing intelligence appears to be as much about governance as speed. The guardrails built into the software are intended to preserve regional pricing structures and prevent sales teams from moving outside agreed margin limits when responding to competitive tenders.

Market pressure

Manufacturers serving construction and infrastructure markets have faced growing pressure to respond faster to tenders as project pipelines fluctuate and competition for available work intensifies. Manual systems can slow that process, particularly when pricing decisions depend on a small number of experienced staff.

Shifting those decisions onto a shared platform can reduce reliance on individual expertise and create a clearer record of how quotes are generated. It also gives management more visibility over pricing decisions across regions and product groups.

UiPath is better known for automation software, but it has been expanding into tools that influence operational and commercial decisions. In this case, it is applying AI to a task tied closely to revenue generation rather than purely administrative work.

A factual update on the rollout came from Marshalls’ sales leadership.

“Our continuing investments in digital and operational efficiency programs allow our business to outperform the competition, regardless of market conditions,” said Phil Sykes, Head of Internal Sales & Customer Service at Marshalls.

The comment reflects a broader strategy at Marshalls to use digital systems to support performance in cyclical, highly competitive markets. The group’s businesses span several parts of the construction supply chain, making pricing discipline important both for winning orders and protecting profitability.

Pricing controls

The pricing setup keeps Marshalls’ data in one place while maintaining rules around local pricing and acceptable margins. That structure is intended to give sales teams more autonomy in producing bids without removing management oversight.

Real-time pricing tools have become more common in sectors where bid turnaround times are critical, but adoption has varied depending on the quality of underlying data and the complexity of product lines. Building materials suppliers often have to account for regional market conditions, transport costs and customer-specific arrangements, all of which can make standardisation difficult.

UiPath described Marshalls’ deployment as an example of AI moving from a supporting role into commercial decisions that directly affect sales outcomes. It framed the partnership as a use of AI in pricing rather than a traditional automation project focused only on workflow efficiency.

“What Marshalls has achieved is great to see and it’s where we are seeing real benefits from agentic AI adoption. AI is no longer just supporting operations, it’s shaping the decisions that directly impact revenue and margin,” said Will Dutton, Director, Supply Chain Solutions at UiPath.



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Mouse droppings found in Oxford city Chinese restaurant

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Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle in New Inn Hall Street was inspected by Oxford City Council on May 26.

Inspectors subsequently handed the Chinese restaurant a rating of two out of five, meaning “improvement necessary”.

According to the report, received by the Oxford Mail after a Freedom of Information request submission, officers identified a series of concerns, including evidence of mouse activity.

The report states that mouse droppings were found throughout the business in two food storage rooms and the bar area.

In one of the storage areas, mouse activity was present where noodles were kept in plastic carrier bags and potatoes and onion were left in the open.

“Historic” mouse droppings at Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle (Image: Oxford City Council)

Inspectors said pest-proofing measures were “not great” and identified a hole beneath a sink in the bar area which could potentially allow pests to enter the premises.

In the report, the inspector said: “At the time of the inspection, I observed a number of historic mouse dropping in both the food storage areas.

“The most recent pest control report mentions no mouse activity in any of the food storage areas.

“All areas where food is prepared and stored must be kept clean and capable of being kept clean. This is so that pests are not attracted into your premises and the risk of food being contaminated by dirt is minimised.”

They advised the owner to remove all historic mouse droppings within the food business and continue to identify any issues of pest proofing within a month.

A hole where pests could have entered underneath the sink (Image: Oxford City Council)

The business was instructed to remove the droppings and improve pest-proofing measures where previous temporary work had failed.

Food storage issues were also highlighted during the inspection.

In an “overfilled” fridge, officers found raw chicken stored above ready-to-eat foods, including uncovered beans and spring onions, which could cause cross-contamination leading to food poisoning.

That same fridge, which stored items such as cooked rice, chicken ballotine and prawns, was above the required eight degrees, raising concern about food poisoning.

A large number of food containers were also unlabelled, despite the food looking fresh.

The officer insisted a “robust system for ensuring adequate stock rotation” was implemented and recommended all food be kept in sealed, pest-proof containers.

An overfilled fridge which was measured above safe temperature (Image: Oxford City Council)

No food-safe sanitiser or disinfectant were available on site, only a kitchen cleaner which they said did not provide adequate disinfection.

Despite the concerns, the report noted there had been a “huge improvement” in cleaning standards since the restaurant’s previous inspection.

The business also had a food safety management system in place and a pest control contract with Pure Pest Solutions.

The council has required a range of improvements, with compliance timescales ranging from one week to one month with a revisit inspection planned.





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Oxford startup secures Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award

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Oxford-based Peripear has secured an Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award and a £74,974 grant for its development of a wearable device designed to prevent perineal trauma during labour.

The funding will support continued product development ahead of the company’s planned first-in-human study.

Nina van Schaick, co-founder and COO of Peripear as well as a midwife who trained at Oxford Brookes, said: “I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to see this gap.

“I was incredibly lucky to meet my co-founder, Eviatar Natan, right as my frustration about the lack of translation of evidence into practice had peaked.

“There was a proven mechanism that could reduce injuries occurring in up to 90 per cent of vaginal births, and it was being left out of clinical pathways simply because no standardised tool existed to deliver it.”

Peripear is developing what it describes as the world’s first automated perineal thermotherapy wearable, designed to prevent perineal trauma during childbirth.

A perineal thermotherapy wearable is an emerging medical device.

It is a hands‑free warm compress device used on the perineum during the second stage of labour to reduce severe tearing and episiotomies while improving maternal comfort.

Ms van Schaick added: “I’m a farmer’s granddaughter, and when I started practising over 14 years ago, I asked: where is the tool I need to implement this evidence? I looked around and realised we were still asking clinicians to improvise.

“Peripear is what happens when the person who has lived the problem, both personally and professionally, meets the person who can help her build the solution.”





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UK bike manufacturer on brink of £30m collapse after 139 years

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The company behind bikemaker Raleigh, which was founded 139 years ago and has supplied bikes to the UK’s cycling city of Oxford over the years, has filed to appoint administrators.

Accell UK and Ireland, part of Netherlands-based Accell Group, filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators as the wider group kickstarted insolvency proceedings.

This follows a difficult spell for Nottinghamshire-based Raleigh, which confirmed job cuts in 2024 before reporting a £30m loss in financial accounts published the following year.

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The boss of Accell said it was a “deeply sad and frustrating situation” and that it had “tirelessly explored” every option for the future of the cycling business.

The company bought Raleigh in 2012 for around 100 million US dollars (£74 million), adding to its roster of bike brands throughout Europe including Haibike, Winora and Ghost.

Raleigh was founded in Nottingham in 1887 and was well-known for its Chopper model, which featured extended handlebars and is now part of its “retro” range.

It no longer manufactures bikes from Nottingham, and its head office has moved to Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, while the company has shifted to selling electric bikes under Accell’s ownership.

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Accell went through a restructuring in February, securing additional funding from shareholders and lenders and reducing debts.

The group said it had since “explored every possible avenue” for its future, including discussions with potential buyers, but that it had not been possible to find a solution which means the business can continue operating.

It has therefore initiated insolvency proceedings in the Netherlands.

Accell’s chief executive Jonas Nilsson said: “This is a deeply sad and frustrating situation given all the hard work and everything we have achieved, with the support of shareholders and lenders, to restructure Accell’s operations and finances.

“It is an especially difficult moment for our employees, creditors, customers, suppliers, and partners.

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“Every realistic option for the future of the business has been tirelessly explored, and none have resulted in a solution to continue the Group in its current form.

“Our immediate focus is to support an orderly process, provide clarity wherever possible, and work with the relevant court-appointed administrators to preserve viable activities and employment where circumstances allow.”

At its 1970s height, Raleigh employed more than 13,000 people across the UK, with around 8,000 working at its various Triumph Road sites in Nottingham.

The former factory land later became the University of Nottingham’s Jubilee Campus.

Raleigh subsequently moved its headquarters to Church Street in Eastwood, before leaving that site and relocating to Durban House in 2024.





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