Britannia AuctionsBusiness relocation and downsizing sales in Swindon
When a site the size of South Marston is redeveloped, the firms around it move too. Suppliers that set up near the old car plant for the contract are downsizing or relocating along the M4, and the machines they bought for that work are the ones that will not fit the next unit. The same thing happens on a smaller scale on Cheney Manor and Dorcan every time a lease ends.
We sell the equipment that stays by online timed auction, from the unit, while the rest of the business moves around it. Automotive suppliers bring presses and assembly kit. Pharmaceutical and electronics firms bring lab benches and test equipment. Print firms bring guillotines and small presses. Distribution sheds at Blagrove and Symmetry Park bring racking and forklift fleets. We catalogue each of them the same way, tag the sale lots, close the auction before handover and run collection in the days after.
Automotive suppliers with a plant built for one contract
Presses, welding cells, conveyors, assembly stations and test rigs built for one vehicle programme are the hard lots in a Swindon automotive sale. The press is catalogued on its own merits and suits any pressings shop. The cell built around a part nobody makes any more sells for its robots, its controls, its guarding and its steel, and our estimate will say so before you plan the move around a number that is not there. Robots and their controllers are lotted separately for that reason.
Machine tools, air compressors, extraction and the tool room kit are the straightforward part. They are catalogued for bidders across the country.
Where a single press or a machining centre is worth more than the rest of the sale, we can offer it by private treaty instead of in the auction, and put the balance into the sale. The decision is made with you after the first visit.
Labs and clean rooms with a national audience
Pharmaceutical and electronics firms on the north and east sides of the town produce a different sale. Fume cupboards, biosafety cabinets, incubators, balances, HPLC systems and environmental chambers are used by other labs, universities, contract manufacturers and equipment dealers, and bidding for them is almost all online. Calibration records and service histories are what a bidder judges this equipment on, so we ask for them when we first visit and list them with the lot. Clean room panels and air handling are sold to be dismantled by the buyer, with a window agreed with the landlord.
The office floor above is catalogued too, in runs of desks and lots of chairs, though what furniture makes depends on its age and its condition.
Collection is planned from what we find at the unit: the road in, the turning space, the loading and the floor, with junctions 15 and 16 of the M4 feeding the estates. The trade in Chippenham, Cirencester, Marlborough and Royal Wootton Bassett is within easy reach of the viewing day.
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 Swindon
- We rent our unit from the developer and the notice period is short. How fast can you move?
Fast enough for most notice periods. We can visit within days and have the catalogue online within a week, with the auction running for a week or ten days after that. The trade off is that buyers have less time to plan transport, which can soften prices on the heaviest lots. Where the date is too tight for a sale on site, we can collect the lots and sell them from our own premises, which clears the unit quickly.
- Is it worth selling the clean room, or should we let the landlord strip it?
A clean room in good condition is worth offering if the lease lets you remove it. Panels, doors, pass boxes and air handling units are used by other pharmaceutical and electronics firms, and the buyer arranges and pays for the dismantling. The catch is making good afterwards, which the lease may require. We read the schedule with you, and if the making good would cost more than the room would fetch, we say so and leave it for the landlord.
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.