Britannia AuctionsBusiness closure auctions in Swansea
Swansea Enterprise Park is unusual. Factories, warehouses, workshops and trade counters share the same roads at Llansamlet, so the trades that can use a closing unit's contents are often a few hundred yards away. A fabricator's press brake suits the engineering firm across the estate. The trade counter's stock suits the builders who used to buy over it. That puts a lot of the potential interest within walking distance of the viewing day.
We run closure sales across the Enterprise Park and Swansea West at Fforestfach, and for the metal processing firms towards Neath and Port Talbot. The sale is online and timed, with bidding open to buyers from any part of the country and the trade at Llanelli, Neath, Bridgend and Ammanford close enough to walk the lots on the viewing day.
Tell us the date you need the unit empty and what is inside it.
Metal finishing lines sell as a set, not by the tank
The firms that serve the steel and metals trade towards Port Talbot bring plant that needs thought. A powder coating line is a pretreatment section, a curing oven, spray booths and a conveyor, and a buyer who wants to run it needs the whole system rather than a row of parts. We sell those lines as single lots with the buyer to dismantle, and we set a reserve. Galvanising and pickling plant is similar, with the added job of getting the chemicals out first, which is the seller's responsibility and needs to be booked early.
General fabrication kit is easier. Press brakes, guillotines, plasma cutters, saws and welding sets are used by any fabricator in South Wales and beyond, so we lot them one at a time.
Where a firm has been machining for the steelworks, there is often material and spare parts stock in the stores that the customer paid for. That goes back to them before we list.
When the buyer is the unit next door
Mixed estates change how a closure sale runs. On the Enterprise Park and at Fforestfach word of a closure travels before it is announced, and an approach from a neighbour is common. The question is what an offer made before the sale is worth against an open auction. Our suggestion is to tell the neighbour the auction date and let them bid, because open competition is the test of the price, and the short journey on collection day is still theirs.
Where a single high value machine is wanted by one local buyer, a private treaty sale can be agreed before the auction and the rest of the unit still goes under the hammer.
The practical side is checked during our first visit. We measure the road, the gate, the yard and the loading door, note the M4 junction the buyers will use and write what we find into the catalogue.
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 Swansea
- Our neighbours on the estate want to buy things before the sale. Can we sell to them direct?
You can, but think about which items. A single large machine that one neighbour wants can be sold by private treaty with our help, at a figure we both think is fair, and taken out of the auction. Selling the small stuff piecemeal at the door tends to strip the best lots out and leave you with the rest. We would rather the neighbours bid in the open sale, where an offer is tested against everyone else's.
- We have a powder coating line and an oven that fill half the unit. Do they sell as one lot?
As one lot, in most cases. A working line with the conveyor, booths, oven and pretreatment together is what another finisher or a dealer who rebuilds them would want, and it is offered with a reserve and with dismantling as the buyer's job. Split it and the conveyor and the pretreatment tanks are the parts left looking for a use. Keep the line running until the viewing day if it can safely be run.
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.