Britannia AuctionsBusiness relocation and downsizing sales in Milton Keynes
Downsizing an office and lab building on Knowlhill is a different job from emptying a shed at Magna Park, and Milton Keynes produces both. A technology firm that shrinks from two floors to one has servers, test benches, environmental chambers and a hundred desks to clear. A parcel carrier that consolidates into Tongwell has racking, dock levellers, forklifts and pallet trucks. Neither wants to pay removals for kit that does not fit the new building.
We run the sale from the old premises by online timed auction. The catalogue goes live while you are still in the building and the auction closes before the lease ends. Buyers collect in a window we agree with you and the landlord. Where viewing on site is awkward, we collect the lots and sell them from our own premises.
Break clauses on modern leases give a firm date to work back from, and that suits the auction format.
Office floors and labs cleared as one catalogue
What the office contents make depends on their age, their condition and how much of it there is, and it is usually the technical kit that repays careful cataloguing. Test equipment, oscilloscopes, power supplies, environmental chambers, soldering lines and electronics assembly benches from Kingston and Wolverton Mill are judged on specification and calibration, and bidding for them is online and open across the UK. Automotive and motorsport firms add dynamometers, fabrication kit, engine stands and CNC machines to the same list.
The office still sells. Desks go in runs, chairs in lots of ten or twenty, whiteboards and screens by the pallet, and meeting room furniture and kitchen equipment as single lots. IT is listed by type and quantity, with data wiped by you before collection.
We catalogue floor by floor so the sale can follow your move. The building empties in the order you leave it.
Grid roads and a collection plan that runs itself
The grid road system keeps collection traffic off residential streets, with junctions 13 and 14 of the M1 feeding Magna Park, Mount Farm and Knowlhill directly. What each yard will take is checked when we first visit, and slots are booked, because a racking crew and a low loader arriving at the same door on the same morning is the sort of thing that spoils a handover.
The older estates, Bletchley among them, get the same check, since yards and shared access differ from one unit to the next and nothing is promised to a buyer before we have seen it.
The trade in Bedford, Northampton, Luton and Aylesbury is within easy reach of the viewing day. Bidding runs online and is open to bidders anywhere in the UK, and buyers arrange their own transport inside the collection window.
What these sales can include
- CNC machine tools
- Presses and press brakes
- Racking and mezzanine floors
- Forklift trucks
- Air compressors
- Workshop tooling and hand tools
- Office furniture and desks
- IT equipment and servers
- Packing and labelling machines
- Welding equipment
- Extraction and dust collection systems
- Vans and light commercial vehicles
How the sale runs
We visit the site, list the lots and photograph them in place. You tell us which items are moving and which are for sale, and we tag the sale lots so there is no confusion on the shop floor.
The catalogue goes online as a timed auction. Bidding stays open for a set period, usually one to two weeks, and each lot closes at a fixed time with an extension if a bid arrives in the last minutes. We hold a viewing day at your premises, and lots are offered as seen under the auction terms, with buyers expected to inspect first.
After the sale we invoice the buyers and take payment. You are paid once the sale is reconciled and the collection window has closed, from cleared funds, less the agreed commission and any agreed costs. Buyers arrange and pay for removal, and our staff attend to release lots against paid invoices.
The business relocation and downsizing sales page covers when a relocation sale makes sense, timing the sale around the move, what to prepare, valuation and reserves, unsold lots and leftovers.
Questions about selling in Milton Keynes
- We have a break clause in six months. When should the sale run?
In the last four to six weeks before the break date. Earlier than that and you are selling equipment you still need. Later and there is no room for the collection window and the cleaning that follows. Talk to us now, though. A first visit months ahead lets us give estimates on the big items, which helps you decide what is worth moving and what is not, and we can pencil in the auction dates around your removals contractor.
- Do buyers really pay for used lab equipment?
Yes, and it is usually the part of a technology sale worth the most care. Calibrated test gear, chambers, power supplies and clean benches are judged on specification, calibration and condition rather than on age alone. Electronics firms, engineering firms, universities and equipment dealers use the same equipment, and the auction is online and open to the whole of the UK. Keep the calibration certificates and the manuals with each item. A serial number and a photograph of the display under power do more than a paragraph of description.
More questions about relocation sales
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.
- Selling a commercial vehicle fleet
Fleet sales turn on paperwork as much as on price. This guide covers the V5C, MOT and plating documents, clearing finance before listing, keys and livery, recording mileage and tachograph data, and how to defleet in batches while still trading.