They then placed contracts with manufacturers and wholesalers, sent out some announcements, put an advertisement in Donnelley's Red Book, and sat back to await results.
Urbanfetch officials said its business service, called Urbanfetch Express, would place contract couriers in corporate offices.
Boeing has promised to place contracts in Britain that will more than equal the Government's outlay for the planes.
Britain is to place contracts with vaccine manufacturers to supply 120m doses, two for every person in the population, to combat a possible pandemic of bird flu.
What emerges is a shift in interest from deregulated to contracted markets (and back to deregulated to some extent), a renewed focus on institutional performance in line with changing government and community expectations, and an increasing desire to place contracted services within the broader context of land use, well-being and wider economic benefits.
Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, says many public services believe they are doing the right thing economically as well as socially by placing contracts with prisons, but often prisoners derive little real benefit.
Each year it places contracts across Europe worth billions of euros; and the more money a member state puts into the Paris-based club, the more money that flows back to the home companies.
There are a number of limitations placed on contract law, an important one being that contract enforcement must accord with public policy.
David Foster, the Northwest director of the steelworkers' union, said a new five-year contract placed limits on contracting out work.
Twenty of the 57 houses were placed in contract before models opened.
