Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Birmingham
Birmingham has a large hotel and restaurant trade, and a good share of it changes hands every year. City centre bars close and reopen under new names. Hotels near the airport and the business parks at junction 6 of the M42 refit their kitchens on a cycle. Restaurant chains shut branches when a lease ends. Every one of those leaves a kitchen behind.
We sell that equipment by online timed auction, usually from the premises. A big city hotel kitchen might run to several hundred lots, from the bratt pans and the combination ovens down to the crockery and the trolleys. A bar is a shorter list, and what the beer coolers, glasswashers, bottle fridges and back bar refrigeration make depends on their age, their condition and how easily they come out. Tell us what you have and when the building has to be handed back.
Hotel kitchens near the airport, bars in the centre
The hotels along the M42 and around Birmingham Business Park serve conference and airport trade, and their kitchens are built for volume. Expect banqueting ovens, large combination ovens, heated pass through cabinets, walk in cold rooms and a dishwasher that can take a rack a minute. Front of house adds banqueting chairs by the hundred, folding tables, lounge seating and bedroom furniture if the hotel is closing rather than refitting. We check the service yard, the goods lift and the door sizes at the site visit, and the catalogue tells buyers what they will be dealing with.
City centre bars are a different shape. The kitchen is small and the money is in the bar: remote beer coolers, python lines, bottle fridges, ice machines and the back bar counters. Access is through the front door on a pedestrian street or through a shared yard, so collection is planned for early morning with a vehicle that suits it. We describe the access in the catalogue so buyers plan for it.
Narrow yards and second hand ranges
Inner city Birmingham was built before the delivery van. Restaurants on the older streets in Aston and Saltley have kitchens at the back of terraced buildings, with a yard that a transit will not fit into. A six burner range is heavy and awkward, and a walk in cold room comes out in panels, so the removal has to suit the weight, the doorway and the route out. That goes in the catalogue before anyone bids.
Where the route out defeats trade collection, the kitchen can be collected and sold from our own premises. There is a transport cost to weigh against the viewing conditions and the date the unit has to be handed back.
Bids are placed online and the sale is open to the whole of the UK, and the trade in Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall and Dudley, and in Coventry along the A45, is near enough to view in person. Refrigeration and stainless steel can be bid on from a description, so the photographs and measurements matter.
What these sales can include
- Cooking ranges and ovens
- Combination ovens
- Fryers and griddles
- Cold rooms and walk in freezers
- Upright and under counter refrigeration
- Display and serve over counters
- Dishwashers and glasswashers
- Ice machines
- Espresso machines and grinders
- Stainless steel tables and sinks
- Extraction canopies
- Bar equipment and beer coolers
- Tables, chairs and banquette seating
- Tills and till systems
How the sale runs
We visit, agree what is in the sale and catalogue it. Each lot is photographed and described as it stands, with known faults noted. The sale is listed online and marketed to operators and dealers across the UK. Buyers view on a set day and bid online, with lots closing in sequence on the sale date.
Lots are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding. The buyer pays the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately. We take payment before anything is released.
Collection follows over a window agreed with you. Buyers arrange and pay for removal, and our staff attend so that services are dealt with correctly and the premises are left as agreed with the landlord.
The catering and hospitality equipment auctions page covers what a catering sale looks like, disconnecting services and extraction, what your lease allows you to sell, clean it, label it, leave it working.
Questions about selling in Birmingham
- Our hotel is refitting, not closing. Will you sell just the old kitchen?
Yes. A refit sale is handled the same way as a closure. The difference is timing. The builders usually set a fixed day, so we would propose an auction closing a few days before it, with collection in between. The old front of house furniture can go in the same sale. Equipment that can be run safely stays connected for the viewing day so it can be demonstrated, and everything else is isolated. Gas has to be capped by a registered engineer before anything comes off the wall.
- The bar has cellar equipment on loan from the drinks supplier. Can we sell it?
Often not. Cellar cooling, python lines and remote coolers are frequently supplied under a loan or dispense agreement rather than bought, and that agreement decides what happens to them. Check it first. What you own outright, such as glasswashers, bottle fridges, ice machines and the bar furniture, can go in the sale. We will separate the two in the catalogue so buyers know exactly what they are bidding on, and nothing leaves the site that is not yours.
More questions about catering equipment