I work as a driver for a delivery firm. Their contract goes out to tender every five years, and we won the last one. But before this decision we were told that, if the firm lost the contract, our names would be supplied to the winners and there would be no redundancy money. Why should this be? I suspect the new firm would pick and choose who they kept.
Any firm that took over the contract would probably be bound by the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations, under which your employment contracts would be transferred to the new firm. You would have continuity of service and could expect the same terms and conditions as before. If you were dismissed you would therefore be able to claim compensation for unfair dismissal or, if there were genuine redundancies, a redundancy payment.