Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Bradford
Bradford's catering trade sits in two kinds of building. There are the restaurants and takeaways along the main roads and around the centre, many of them running big burner ranges and tandoors that were built to order, and there are the mill conversions, where a cafe or a bar has been fitted into a stone building with a steep yard and a goods entrance designed for wool bales.
Beyond the city the food manufacturers add a third stream. Bakeries, sauce makers, snack firms and ready meal producers keep development kitchens and staff canteens, and when a line closes or a firm moves to a bigger unit near the M606, that equipment comes out.
Whatever the building, we look at the route out first. A kitchen that went in through a window will have to come out the same way, and that decides whether we sell from the premises or collect it and sell from our own.
Burner ranges and tandoors from the restaurant trade
The heavy cooking equipment in a Bradford restaurant is often unusual. Six and eight burner ranges with high output jets, tandoor ovens, tilting bratt pans and big stock pot stoves are common, and what they make depends on their condition, their specification and how easily they come out. Bidding is online and open across the UK, and the restaurant trade from Keighley and Halifax across to Dewsbury and Leeds is within a comfortable drive of the viewing day.
Gas is the practical issue. Every one of those appliances needs a registered engineer to disconnect and cap it before collection, and a big range on a pipe run of its own takes longer than a domestic job. The engineer can be booked for collection day where that is agreed, and the cost goes into the plan.
Front of house goes in as well: banquette seating, large tables, the crockery and the tills. The bigger takeaway counters and display fridges are catalogued separately, because they suit a shop fit out rather than a restaurant.
Getting a cafe out of a mill yard
Many of the older mills around the Canal Road corridor and in Shipley have cafes and bars in them now. The yard is steep, the doorway was cut for carts, the kitchen may be a floor above the loading area with a stair between, and the tenant next door needs the yard for their own deliveries.
We plan the sale around the building rather than the other way round. The order of collection and the handling, whether that is a stair climber, a ramp or a specialist crew, is agreed for the site once the route out has been walked. Where the route is not safe for trade collection, the lots can come to our own premises and be sold there.
Mill cafe equipment suits cafe and coffee shop owners, and West Yorkshire is within a comfortable drive of the viewing day. An espresso machine and grinder in good order is compact enough to travel by courier, so those lots are photographed and described in full.
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 Bradford
- The landlord fitted the extraction and we fitted the range. Which can we sell?
The range, if you bought it and it is not on finance; anything on finance belongs to the funder until it is settled. Extraction is often a landlord's fixture, but the lease and the fit out records decide it, and any agreement to remove it should be in writing. Where a canopy is yours but the ductwork is not, we sell the canopy and leave the ductwork capped. This comes up on almost every restaurant sale, so we go through the lease and the fit out invoices with you before we photograph anything, and we mark the listing so buyers know what is included.
- The bakery development kitchen is nearly new. Would private treaty get more than an auction?
Possibly, for one or two items. A blast chiller or a rack oven that is a year old and has its service record can sometimes be sold direct to another producer at a price both sides are happy with. We will tell you if we think that is the case. For the rest of the kitchen, the benches, the mixers, the refrigeration and the small equipment, auction is the better route, because the buyers compete and the whole room goes on one date.
More questions about catering equipment