Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Derby
Derby's hotels are full of contractors. The aerospace, rail, automotive and engineering plants bring in engineers and fitters on long jobs, and the hotels around Pride Park and along the A38 feed them. That gives the city a good number of hotel kitchens, and when a hotel changes brand, refits or closes, a big kitchen and a lot of bedroom and restaurant furniture come to market.
The plants themselves run staff restaurants, and the supply chain firms on Osmaston Park and Sinfin Lane have canteens. Contract caterers come and go on those sites, and each change can put a kitchen up for sale. In the city centre there is the usual mix of restaurants, cafes, takeaways and bars in leased units.
We sell all of it by online timed auction. Hotels and works sites usually have a service yard. City centre units need more thought. Tell us which yours is.
Contractor hotels and works restaurants
A hotel that has fed shift workers and site contractors for years has a kitchen built for breakfast at six and dinner at nine. Expect two or three combination ovens, a large flat top, banks of upright fridges, a walk in cold room and a dishwasher line that runs all day. The restaurant furniture is plain and hard wearing, and there is usually a function suite with stacking chairs and folding tables. What that kind of kit makes depends on its condition, its specification and how easily it comes out, and the trade that uses it is other hotels and pub operators.
Works restaurants on the engineering estates are similar in scale. They are often owned by the site rather than the caterer, so the sale is part of a wider site clearance, or it runs on its own when a new caterer brings their own kit.
Where a building has a service yard and a loading bay the collection is straightforward, and we confirm the vehicle access, the door sizes and the loading arrangements before the catalogue goes out.
Ovens travel, cold rooms do not
The price a catering lot makes depends partly on how easily it moves. A combination oven or an espresso machine can be crated and sent anywhere in the UK by pallet courier, so it can be bid on from anywhere in the UK without a visit. A walk in cold room, an extraction canopy or a run of fitted stainless steel benches has to be dismantled, and the buyer has to be close enough to come and do it. Those lots suit the trade in Nottingham, Burton upon Trent, Belper and Ashbourne, all near enough to view in person.
We use that when we plan a sale. The movable items get the best photographs and the fullest descriptions, because they have the widest market. The fixed items are described with their dimensions and the route out, so a local buyer can decide before the viewing whether they can handle the job.
Where a building is easy to reach and to load from, that is worth saying in the listing, because it is one of the things a buyer prices in.
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 Derby
- The hotel is changing brand and the new owner wants the kitchen out in a fortnight. Is that possible?
Two weeks is tight but workable if you call straight away, and it turns on the number of lots, the access and when the services can be capped. We would propose cataloguing within a day or two, listing the same week, about a week of bidding and collection in the last days. A registered gas engineer must cap the supply before collection, and it helps to have the cold room emptied and defrosted by then. If the timetable slips we can collect the kitchen and sell it from our own premises.
- We run a cafe in Derby and only have about thirty items. Is that too small for an auction?
No. A small cafe sale works on its own if the equipment is good, and if it is not, we put it into one of our mixed catering sales alongside other lots. An espresso machine, a grinder, a couple of display fridges and a panini grill are the kind of lots the small end of the trade looks for, and bidding is open across the region either way. Tell us what you have and we will give you a view on which route suits, and on whether it is worth doing at all.
More questions about catering equipment