Britannia AuctionsBusiness closure auctions in Birmingham
The date on the dilapidations notice is the one that matters. In Birmingham that date often belongs to the landlord of an older estate at Tyseley or Witton, where the units were built for the metal trades and the plant inside is heavy. Power presses, guillotines, plating tanks and compressors do not leave a building on their own, and a landlord who wants the floor slab back in good order will charge for every week of overrun.
We run closure sales that put the removal in the hands of the buyers and still meet that date. The sale closes online a week or two before the handback. Buyers then collect in a fixed window, with our staff on site to let lots go only when they have been paid for. Bidding is online and open across the UK, and the metal trades in Walsall, Dudley, West Bromwich and Coventry are near enough to view in person.
Use the contact form to tell us the empty date and what is in the building.
Press shops and finishing lines sold with the kit around them
A pressings shop sells more than its presses. The tooling, the coil handling, the decoilers and straighteners, the fork trucks and the scrap skips are all lotted, and the small tooling in the stores is worth cataloguing rather than skipping. We lot the presses individually with their tonnage, bed size and serial plate photographed, and group the tooling so that trade buyers can bid on a shelf at a time.
Metal finishing needs more thought. Plating and anodising lines hold chemicals that cannot be sold with the tanks and cannot be left for the landlord. Arrange licensed disposal before the collection days and let us know when it is done, because a buyer cannot lift a tank that is still full. Rectifiers, filters, pumps and fume extraction are lotted once the line is decommissioned.
Automotive supply units closing across the city bring welding cells, jigs, CNC machines and inspection kit. Those follow the same route, though robots and cells need a rigger to break down.
Narrow roads and small yards need a removal plan
Many of the older estates inside the ring of the M6 have single track access roads and units with no yard at all. A press that came in through a knocked out wall years ago may need the same treatment on the way out. We look at this when we walk the site and write it into the sale terms so that buyers know what they are taking on.
Where a rigger is needed we say so in the lot description, and the buyer arranges and pays for it. Where a low loader cannot reach the door, we agree the order and the method for each heavy lot with you, which may mean loading from the kerb with the road coned. Van lots are kept to a separate day so the two do not clash.
Units at Minworth or near the M42 are laid out differently again. We measure the yard, the doors and the turning space on every site, whatever the postcode, and what we find decides whether we propose a sale on site or collection and sale from our own premises.
What these sales can include
- Production machinery
- Finished goods and raw materials
- Warehouse racking
- Forklifts and handling equipment
- Vans, trucks and trailers
- Office furniture and computers
- Workshop tools and benches
- Compressors and site services
- Catering equipment
- Retail fittings and display units
- Vehicle lifts
- Packaging machinery
How we run the sale
We visit, agree the scope and catalogue the lots on site. Everything from the main machines down to the contents of the stores can be included. Small items are grouped into sensible lots so that nothing is left behind.
The sale runs online as a timed auction. Bidders register, view the lots on a set viewing day at your premises, and bid until the closing time. Lots close in sequence, and a late bid extends the closing time on that lot.
Buyers pay the hammer price plus the buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately on the invoice. They pay us, and you are paid once the sale is reconciled and the collection window has closed, from cleared funds. The auction terms set out what happens if a buyer does not pay or collect. The details for your sale are explained when we discuss it.
The business closure auctions page covers closure sales and the pressure of the date, who needs to agree before you sell, stock, records and the things people forget, collection, clearance and the empty building, when a closure sale is not the answer.
Questions about selling in Birmingham
- Our plating line still has chemicals in the tanks. What do we do with it?
Have it drained and disposed of by a licensed waste carrier before the sale closes, and keep the consent notes. We will not list a tank for collection while it holds liquor, and a buyer cannot lift it in that state. Once it is empty and rinsed, the tanks, rectifiers, pumps and extraction sell as normal lots. If the disposal will not be finished in time, tell us and we will move the collection window or split the line into a later sale.
- The unit has no yard and the road outside is single track. Can heavy plant still be collected?
Usually, with planning. We check the route at the site visit, note where a low loader can stand and whether the road needs coning, and put that in the catalogue. Heavy lots are then given their own collection slot at a time that suits the estate, and the buyer arranges and pays for the rigger. If the building cannot be worked, we can bring the plant to our own premises and sell it there instead.
More questions about closure auctions
Related services
Guides
- Closing a business: a timeline for selling the assets
Work backwards from the day you hand the site over. This guide covers lease end and dilapidations, when to instruct, when staff should leave, when to keep the power on, and how to leave enough room for collection and making good.