Britannia AuctionsBusiness relocation and downsizing sales in Norwich
The hard part of a Norfolk relocation is often the lane. A food processor or an agricultural engineer that grew up in a village outside the ring road and is moving in to Broadland Business Park or Longwater finds that the machines it wants to sell were delivered on a smaller lorry twenty years ago, and the hedges have not moved since. Stainless tanks, mixers, fillers and packing lines that are not going to the new site have to come out the same way.
We sell that equipment by online timed auction, from the old site or from our own premises if the site cannot take viewers. We look at the access when we walk the site and plan collection around it. Buyers view once, pay us and collect in a window. The sale runs while you are still producing, so the move and the sale come to the same end date.
Food plant leaving a village site for the ring road
Food and drink kit makes up most of what we sell around Norwich. Stainless steel tables, tanks, jacketed pans, depositors, blast chillers, cold rooms and metal detectors, and the packing and labelling lines at the end of the room. Cold rooms and walk in freezers are sold to be dismantled by the buyer and we say so in the listing. Anything that has been through a hygiene audit is easier to describe accurately with the records, so keep them.
Agricultural engineers and machinery dealers bring welding sets, lathes, presses, a workshop crane and the yard forklift. Printers on Vulcan Road and Salhouse Road bring guillotines and small presses.
Food plant of this kind is used by other processors across Norfolk and by a national trade in used catering and process equipment that bids online. The workshop kit suits engineering firms in Wymondham, Dereham, Diss and Attleborough, with the catalogue reaching further.
Collection when the lane is narrower than the lorry
We do not promise a buyer a low loader can get to a site until we have stood in the yard. On the estates at Broadland, the airport area, Longwater and Rackheath we still check the gate, the yard and the turning space before the catalogue says what will fit. Beyond the ring road we sometimes specify a rigid lorry or a hiab, and buyers price their transport with that in mind. The alternative is that we collect the lots ourselves on a vehicle that fits and sell them from our own premises, which is often the right call for a farm workshop with one gateway.
Automotive engineering firms around Hethel bring a different list, of dynamometers, fabrication benches, CNC machines and inspection equipment, and those are catalogued for a national trade rather than a Norfolk one.
For timing, we work back from the day the keys go back and propose a close date from there. That leaves room for collection and for the odd lot that needs a second visit.
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 Norwich
- Our vans are moving with us but the older ones are not. Do they go in the same sale?
Yes. Vans and light commercials sit well in a relocation catalogue and often draw bidders who then look at the rest. We need the V5C, the keys, the service history and the MOT status for each vehicle, and a note of any finance. Vehicles on finance cannot be sold until the lender agrees. We photograph them cleaned and with the mileage showing. Bidding for vans is online and open to the whole of the UK, so the catalogue reaches well beyond Norfolk.
- The site is a farm and we are the only business on it. Is a viewing day practical?
Usually yes, with some planning. We put a single viewing day in the catalogue, with a time window, and we or you are on site to direct traffic. Buyers park where we tell them. If the lane genuinely will not take the traffic, or the landowner would rather not have it, we collect the lots and hold the viewing at our own premises instead. That choice is made at the first visit, not on the day.
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.