If you supply into mining, construction or government in Perth or across Western Australia, a capability statement is usually the first document a procurement team sees - and often the only thing standing between your business and a shortlist. A capability statement is a short document, most commonly two to eight pages, that summarises what your company does, what it has delivered, and what credentials it holds, so a procurement officer can assess your suitability in under two minutes without reading a full proposal.
It is not a brochure and not a tender response. A brochure sells; a tender responds to a specific scope. A capability statement sits between them: the standing document you send when someone asks "what do you do, and have you done it before?" Here's what belongs in one, how long it should be, what WA buyers specifically look for, and how to produce it so it works both as a PDF and as a printed document you can hand across a table.
What is a capability statement used for?
Three situations, mostly. Prequalification - getting onto a contractor's or agency's approved supplier list before work is even advertised. Tender support - attached to bids as the credentials document backing your submission. Business development - the leave-behind after a site visit or meeting, and the document that answers "send us something about your company" without a scramble.
If your customers are other businesses, government, or the resources sector, you will be asked for one. Arriving without it reads as "we haven't done this before" - which is exactly the impression the document exists to prevent.
What should a capability statement include?
Ten sections cover almost every requirement in Australian procurement, roughly in reading order:
- Company particulars - legal entity name exactly as registered, trading name, ABN, ACN, registered address, year established.
- Core capabilities - what you actually deliver, written as services rather than aspirations. Specific beats broad: "HV electrical maintenance for fixed plant" outranks "electrical services".
- Past performance - named projects with client, scope, value range and completion date. This is the section procurement teams read first.
- Certifications and accreditations - ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental), ISO 45001 (safety), plus trade licences and sector tickets, with numbers.
- Insurances - public liability, workers' compensation, and professional indemnity if you provide design or advice, with cover amounts and expiry. Many WA tenders require evidence of $10-20 million public liability, so stating your cover up front removes a checking step.
- Safety - your WHS system and, for resources-sector work, your recordable injury rates. Mining principals will ask; answering before they ask is the point.
- Capacity and coverage - headcount, equipment or fleet, geographic reach, and whether you can mobilise to site.
- Key personnel - the people who will actually deliver, with relevant qualifications.
- Differentiators and procurement certifications - what comparable suppliers can't offer: local presence, response time, specialist equipment. If your business holds Supply Nation certification, is majority Aboriginal-owned, or qualifies as an Australian Disability Enterprise, say so prominently - WA agencies have direct-engagement pathways for certified businesses, and buyers actively look for this.
- Contact and references - a named person with a direct number, not a generic info@ address, plus two or three contactable references with permission.
Larger prequalification systems ask for more - ownership structure, modern slavery statements, WHS and environmental management plans, financials. A capability statement doesn't need to contain all of that, but it should make clear you hold it. And not every business needs all ten sections: a design studio doesn't need injury rates; a mining services contractor absolutely does. Cut what doesn't apply rather than padding what does.
How long should a capability statement be?
Two pages is the working standard for general distribution - a single A4 sheet printed double-sided. It's short enough to be read in full, long enough to carry past performance, and it's the version portals and procurement inboxes actually want. If you're unsure, produce the two-page version first: it's the one that gets read.
Longer versions have specific uses:
| Format | Length | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| One-pager | 1 page | Tender attachments, supplier portals, email follow-ups |
| Working standard | 2 pages | General distribution - one A4 sheet, double-sided |
| Presentation | 4 pages | An A3 sheet folded to A4 - room for project photography, no staples |
| Pursuit document | 8-16 pages | Major project EOIs and capability presentations, saddle stitched |
Most businesses supplying into resources are best served by two documents built from one design: the two-page statement for volume distribution, and the designed multi-page version for the meetings and pursuits that justify it. A hacked-down last-minute cut of your full document always shows.
Whatever the length, the first page carries the weight. A buyer skimming should get your capabilities, your strongest credential and your biggest named client without turning a page.
What's the difference between a capability statement and a company profile?
A capability statement is one to eight pages and answers "can you do this work?" A company profile is twelve to twenty-four pages and answers "who are you as a business?" Procurement teams request capability statements; company profiles serve investor conversations, recruitment and relationship building. Most businesses supplying into resources eventually need both, and the capability statement is usually a condensed extract of the profile.
What do WA mining and government buyers look for?
Local content is the dominant factor in resources. Major Western Australian projects carry Australian Industry Participation commitments, and project owners actively look for capable local suppliers to meet them. Making your WA presence explicit - where you're based, where your people are, whether you can service the Pilbara or the Goldfields - is not padding; it's a scoring criterion.
Free supplier registration on Gateway by ICN (the Industry Capability Network platform, hosted in WA by CCIWA) puts your capability in front of procurement teams for major LNG, iron ore and public infrastructure projects. If you supply into resources and aren't registered, that's usually the highest-value hour you can spend. Aboriginal-owned businesses should also be listed on the Aboriginal Business Directory WA, which ICN WA maintains alongside Gateway.
Beyond local content, resources buyers weight safety systems heavily - a capability statement that leads with its safety record and named certifications will outperform one that leads with company history. Government evaluators are assessing value for money, risk and compliance, which is why insurances, certifications and an accurate legal entity name aren't formalities - they're scoring inputs. None of this requires special language. It requires the facts stated specifically: cover amounts, certificate numbers, named projects, real locations.
Do you still need a printed capability statement?
Yes - in resources and construction specifically, and alongside the PDF rather than instead of it. The PDF does the volume work: portals, email, tender lodgement. The printed document does the persuasion work:
- Industry days and supplier forums. ICN and project-owner briefings put you face to face with procurement staff who leave with a stack of documents. A printed statement survives that; a business card does not.
- Site and office meetings. Handing over a document keeps the conversation on your capability rather than on a laptop screen.
- Expos and trade shows. Perth's resources and energy events still run on physical collateral.
The combination that works hardest is a presentation folder holding the capability statement and loose inserts - current price list, project sheets, certificates of currency. The folder stays; the inserts update without reprinting the whole document.
What size, format and stock should it be?
A4 (210 x 297mm), portrait. This is a filing-cabinet and tender-desk document; procurement teams file them, and an odd size ends up folded or lost. Format follows page count:
- Two pages: single A4 sheet, double-sided, on 250-350gsm so it has weight in the hand and doesn't curl in a folder. Below 200gsm a single-sheet statement feels like a flyer.
- Four pages: a single A3 sheet folded to A4 - four pages, no staples.
- Eight to sixteen pages: saddle stitched, with a heavier cover than the inside pages - 250-300gsm cover, 150gsm text is the standard combination.
- Twenty pages or more: perfect bound, which produces a flat printed spine - though at that length you're building a company profile, not a capability statement.
On finish: matt or velvet laminate over gloss. Gloss shows fingerprints, glares under office lighting and can't be written on; matt resists marking, photographs better and survives a site bag. If people need to annotate the document, specify uncoated stock with no laminate at all. And print short runs - 50 to 100 - reprinting when content changes, rather than boxing 500 that go stale the day your insurance renews.
Why your page count must be a multiple of 4
From eight pages up, a stitched booklet is made of folded sheets, and each folded sheet produces 4 pages - two on the front, two on the back. So a saddle-stitched capability statement can be 8, 12 or 16 pages, and physically cannot be anything in between.
The document we see most often is the 7-page Word file. On paper, 7 pages must become 8 - which means one blank page, and unless you decide where it goes, the printer decides for you. The usual result is a blank inside back cover, which reads as an afterthought in a document whose entire job is looking deliberate.
Plan for the count instead:
- Write to the count from the outset. Sketch the page plan before the content - it's the single easiest way to avoid the problem.
- One page over? Cut or combine. A 9-page draft becomes a better 8-page document far more often than it becomes a good 12-page one.
- One page short? Use the spare deliberately. A certifications page, a full-page project photo, or a notes page turns the forced blank into content.
(Counting note, because it trips people up: a "page" is one printed side, the same as a page in Word - not a sheet of paper. An 8-page booklet is two sheets, folded and stitched.)
How should the file be set up for print and digital?
Design once at A4 with 3mm bleed, keeping text at least 5mm inside the trim - everything in our print-ready file guide applies. Then export twice:
- Print version: PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4, CMYK, images at 300dpi, fonts embedded, bleed included.
- Digital version: RGB, images downsampled to 150dpi, no bleed or crop marks, compressed to under 5MB. Many procurement portals reject uploads above 10MB, and some cap at 5MB.
Two more things that matter for the digital version: make the PDF text-searchable rather than a flattened image, because procurement teams search across submitted documents - and name the file properly. CompanyName-Capability-Statement-2026.pdf, not CapStat_FINAL_v3.pdf.
How often should it be updated?
Every twelve months at minimum, and immediately whenever an insurance certificate or ISO certification renews - an expired date on a capability statement does more damage than the current one does good, because it tells the buyer the document isn't maintained. Build it so updating is cheap: keep certification dates and insurance figures in a single block rather than scattered through the text, so the yearly refresh is one edit rather than ten.
The five mistakes that sink capability statements
- No named clients. "Various leading mining companies" persuades nobody. Name them, or name the project scope if confidentiality binds you.
- Capabilities without evidence. Every claimed capability should connect to a project, certification or person somewhere in the document.
- Pricing in the document. Rates belong in a quote or tender response, not a standing document - they date it immediately and remove your ability to price by scope.
- Everything, everywhere. Listing twelve service lines to seem bigger dilutes the three you'd actually win on. Buyers shortlist specialists.
- Design that fights reading. Dense paragraphs, tiny type over background images, no hierarchy. The buyer gives it two minutes; the design's job is to make them count.
Getting one produced
We design and print capability statements for businesses across Perth and WA - from structuring the content through to the finished document and its matching presentation folder. If you already have artwork, send it over and we'll check it before press like any other job; if you're starting from nothing, our capability statement design and print packages take it end to end. Email hello@takoprint.com.au or call (08) 6107 6756.