Britannia AuctionsBusiness closure auctions in Warrington
Warrington's closures come in two shapes. On the estates near the Ship Canal and at Woolston Grange a fabrication shop or a trailer repair yard closes with heavy kit, a yard full of steel and a lease that is nearly up. At Birchwood Park an engineering consultancy winds down a project, and what it leaves behind is offices, a test workshop and a store of instruments that were bought for one job.
Both sell the same way. We catalogue on site, run one online timed auction with a viewing day, and buyers collect during a fixed window with our staff on site. Bidding runs online and is open to the whole of the UK. The crossing of the M6 and the M62 puts the trade at Widnes, St Helens, Wigan and Northwich close enough to walk the lots on the viewing day, and hauliers collecting for distant bidders reach the estates without going through the town.
Send us the list and the date. We plan the rest.
Engineering offices, labs and the workshop behind them
Engineering and nuclear service firms at Birchwood tend to close a project rather than a factory. The lots are office furniture by the floor, computers and screens by the pallet, meeting room kit and then a workshop or laboratory that most people forget about. Test rigs, environmental chambers, instrumentation, calibration standards and hand tools are lotted for other engineering firms and for dealers, who bid online.
Data is the thing to deal with first. Computers and servers must be wiped or removed before the viewing day, and project files and client drawings go back to the client. We sell hardware only.
Anything with a radiological history needs its clearance paperwork before it can be lotted, and we will ask about it during our first visit. Kit without paperwork does not go in the sale. Office fit outs are worth cataloguing rather than skipping, but they need a buyer with a dismantling crew, so we lot desks by the bank and partitions by the run.
Trailer yards and fabrication shops by the canal
The older estates near the Ship Canal and at Appleton Thorn hold vehicle and trailer businesses that close with a lot of steel on the ground. Trailers, tractor units, column lifts, brake testers, welding sets and racks of parts are all lotted, and the operators at Runcorn, Leigh, Altrincham and Knutsford are close enough to view and to collect with a unit of their own. We check the plates and ask about finance on each vehicle before listing.
Fabrication shops add the heavy end. Press brakes, guillotines, plasma tables, overhead cranes and the steel stock in the rack are all lotted. A crane runner is a rigging job and often stays with the building by agreement. The steel stock is offered to other fabricators by the bundle, as usable material rather than scrap.
We measure the approach, the gate and the loading door on every site before the collection days are set, and the findings go in the catalogue so that buyers arrive with a vehicle that fits.
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 Warrington
- Part of our workshop was used on nuclear contracts. Does that stop us selling the equipment?
Not on its own, but every item needs its clearance record before we will lot it. Equipment that was monitored and released from a controlled site should have paperwork showing that, and we attach it to the lot so that buyers can see it. Anything without a record stays out of the sale until you can get one from the site operator. Tell us when we walk the site which items are affected so that we can plan the catalogue around them.
- Our tractor units are on contract hire and the trailers are owned. Can we sell just the trailers?
Yes. Contract hire units go back to the hire company at the end of the term and never enter the sale. Owned trailers are lotted with their plates, their test dates, their tyre condition and any tail lift or fridge unit described. Bidding for them is open nationally, and a buyer collects with their own unit. Send us the fleet list with the hire agreements marked and we sort out which vehicles are in and which are out.
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.