Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Edinburgh
August fills every kitchen in Edinburgh and September empties some of them. Pop up bars and temporary venues built for the festival strip out in the first week of September, and the restaurants and cafes that traded through the summer take stock in the autumn. Some decide not to face another winter. That is when catering equipment comes to auction here.
The rest of the city runs to a different clock. Hotels in the centre refurbish between seasons. The bars and restaurants around Leith and the older units at Seafield change hands as the area changes. Distribution firms at Newbridge and the estates at Sighthill run staff kitchens that sell when a unit is handed back.
We sell it by online timed auction from the premises, and we collect and sell from our own premises where a close or a stair makes trade collection impractical.
After the festival, before the winter
A temporary venue sale is fast and mostly furniture. Bar counters built for a month, bottle coolers, glasswashers, ice machines, folding tables and stacking chairs in the hundreds, and a short cooking line for the food offer. The equipment is often hired, so the first job is separating what the operator owns from what goes back to the hire company. What is owned suits event companies, hire firms, other festival operators and bars looking to expand their outside space.
Permanent restaurants that close in the autumn are a different sale. The kitchens are older and heavier. The buildings are often stone with a stair to a basement, and a lease may run to a quarter day. Where it does we work back from that date and propose a timetable, with cataloguing in early autumn and the bidding before the term ends.
Leith bars and the older units at Seafield
Leith has been changing for years, and the bars and restaurants that opened early are now selling up or being replaced. The equipment ranges from a well kept espresso machine in a small cafe to a full bar with cellar cooling in a converted warehouse. Access near the shore is often a street door rather than a yard, so the parking, the loading restrictions and the stairs are checked before the catalogue says what vehicle to bring.
The units at Seafield and around the port are older industrial buildings, and they hold the wholesale and marine trades, the fish merchants, the ship suppliers, the fruit and vegetable wholesalers and the catering wholesalers who serve the city. When one of those closes, the sale is cold rooms, blast freezers, stainless steel benches and vehicle refrigeration, and it is collected on pallets from a yard rather than carried up a stair.
Bidding runs online and is open to the rest of the country, and the trade in Musselburgh, Dalkeith, Livingston and across the Forth in Dunfermline is close enough to attend a viewing day.
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 Edinburgh
- The venue was temporary and most of the kit was hired. Is what we own worth an auction?
Often yes, once we know what is yours. Bar counters you had built, furniture you bought, coolers and glasswashers you own outright, and any sound and lighting equipment can all be sold, and event companies are part of the market for them. We check the hire agreements with you so nothing goes in the catalogue that has to go back. If the owned equipment is only a vanload, we may suggest collecting it and selling it alongside other lots from our own premises rather than running a sale on site.
- Our restaurant lease ends at Martinmas. Can the sale be done before then?
Probably, if we start by early October, and the run depends on how many lots there are and the access. Allow a few days to catalogue and photograph, a viewing day, a week or two of bidding, then a collection window that closes before the term date, which leaves time to clean the unit and hand it back. A lease may also require the tenant to remove fittings and make good, so check yours. Where the canopy and the ductwork are yours to take out, they are sold for dismantling and the buyer's crew does the removal. We put that in the listing so the right buyers bid.
More questions about catering equipment