Britannia AuctionsBusiness retirement auctions in Reading
Reading's office parks get the attention, but behind them is a set of trading estates where the practical work is done. Engineering workshops and vehicle repairers on Battle Farm, warehousing along Basingstoke Road, plant hire yards and contractors' depots on the edge of town and larger units at Theale. Where an owner is retiring and selling the contents rather than the business, the sale has to fit the date the site is handed back, and in the Thames Valley that date is often set by a developer's timetable.
We sell the contents at auction on a date that fits the lease or the sale of the site. Machine tools, lifts, welding plant, forklifts, racking, plant, vans and stock are catalogued on site, sold online over a week or two with a viewing day, and collected in a fixed window. One person deals with you throughout.
The contact form is the place to start.
Workshops and repairers on the older trading estates
An engineering workshop or a vehicle repairer that has been on Battle Farm or Portman Road for decades holds equipment that other trades want. Lathes, mills, a press brake and welding sets from the engineer. Lifts, a brake tester, tyre and alignment equipment, a compressor and a wall of tools from the repairer. Both have vans, racking, a forklift and a parts store.
What this equipment makes depends on its condition, its age and how easily it comes out of the building. Wokingham, Bracknell, Newbury and Basingstoke are within a comfortable drive of the viewing day, as are Slough and Maidenhead along the M4, and the sale is online and open to bidders anywhere in the UK for the larger machines, whose buyers send a haulier.
Plant hire yards bring mini excavators, dumpers, compaction kit and tool hire stock. Hours and service records in the catalogue are what a bidder judges them on.
When the landlord has other plans for the site
Around Reading the end of a lease often means the end of the building. Older estates are being cleared for housing or for larger distribution units, and the landlord's timetable is tied to a planning consent or a sale, so the date the keys go back does not move. We plan the auction from that date backwards. The sale closes a week or two before and collection runs in the days after. We leave a margin for the last heavy lot.
Junction 11 serves Basingstoke Road and Green Park and junction 12 serves Theale, so a low loader reaches the estates without going through the town. The unit itself is what we check during our first visit: the gate, the turning space, the doors and the floor, and the findings go in the catalogue.
The buyer appoints and pays the machinery mover. The collection order is agreed with you, so that vans and movers are not working in the same space, and our staff let lots go only when they have been paid for.
What these sales can include
- Workshop machinery
- Hand and power tools
- Vans and company vehicles
- Trade stock and consumables
- Racking and storage
- Forklifts and pallet trucks
- Office furniture and IT
- Welding and fabrication equipment
- Compressors and generators
- Vehicle lifts and garage equipment
- Catering and canteen equipment
- Signage and shop fittings
How the sale runs
It starts with a conversation. We ask what you have, where it is, and when you need it gone. Then we visit, walk the premises with you and agree which items are included.
We catalogue the lots on site. Each lot gets a description, photographs and, where relevant, a serial number and condition note. The catalogue goes online and the auction is marketed to buyers in the trade.
Most sales run as online timed auctions. Bidding is open for a set period, usually a week or two, with a viewing day at your premises before it closes. Buyers pay us, then collect their lots during the collection window. We account to you once the sale is reconciled, buyers have paid and the collection window has closed, from cleared funds.
The business retirement auctions page covers when an auction is the right route, what you need to prepare, values, reserves and what the buyer pays, collection day and unsold lots, other routes and when we suggest them.
Questions about selling in Reading
- The site is being sold to a developer and completion could move. How do we set the auction date?
We set it to the earliest date you could be asked to leave and build in a margin. An auction can be catalogued and run in a few weeks, and moving it later is easy, while moving it earlier is not. If completion slips after the sale has closed, the buyers still collect in the fixed window and you have an empty building a little sooner than needed, which is rarely a problem. If the timetable is very uncertain, we can collect the lots and sell them from our own premises.
- We have plant on hire to customers and vans on lease. What can go in the sale?
Plant that is yours goes in once it is back in the yard, and we agree a return date before cataloguing so buyers can see it at the viewing. Vans on lease usually go back to the leasing company, and a van on hire purchase belongs to the funder until the agreement is settled, so it can only be sold where they agree, often with the settlement figure paid from the proceeds. Tell us about the finance on the first call and we contact them. Nothing owned by someone else goes into the catalogue.
More questions about retirement auctions
Related services
Guides
- Auction or private treaty: which route to choose
Auction gives you a fixed date and an open market. Private treaty gives you a negotiated price and privacy. This guide sets out when each route suits, what you give up with each, and why many sales use both.