Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Hull
The holiday parks along the coast east and north of Hull close their bars and clubhouses in the autumn. Most reopen in spring, but some do not, and some change hands over the winter with a new operator who wants their own fit out. That is when the bar counters, the beer coolers, the glasswashers and the clubhouse furniture come to auction, and the timing suits everyone, because the park is empty and the roads are quiet.
Hull itself adds a second stream. The city is the centre of caravan and holiday home manufacturing, and the caravan factories and their joinery and upholstery suppliers run canteens for large workforces. So do the food processing firms and the haulage and warehousing operators along Hedon Road. When a factory consolidates or a caterer's contract ends, a canteen kitchen with a loading bay next to it comes to market.
We run online timed auctions for both, with viewing at the premises and a fixed collection window afterwards.
Clubhouse bars when the season ends
A holiday park clubhouse is a bar sale with a kitchen attached. Most of the equipment sits in the bar, the bottle coolers, the ice machine, the glasswasher and the draught equipment, and behind it in the fryers, the griddles, the hot holding cabinets and the microwaves that fed the entertainment nights. The furniture is bulk. The chairs and tables go in runs of ten so buyers can take a vanload.
Collection out of season is usually simpler, with the pitches empty, though we still check the access, the turning space and the surface before the catalogue says what vehicle to bring. The market for clubhouse kit is other parks, pubs, social clubs and sports clubs, and the trade in Beverley, Driffield, Hedon and Barton-upon-Humber is well placed to come and look before bidding closes.
Draught dispense supplied by the brewery is not the tenant's to sell, and the dispense agreement decides it. We check that before listing, because the python and the founts are often on loan.
Canteens at the caravan works and the food plants
Factory canteens on this side of the city are large and plainly built. A caravan works feeding a few hundred people at lunchtime runs a long servery, a bank of combination ovens, a bulk dishwasher and a walk in cold room, and the food processing firms run something similar with a hygiene standard on top. Food plant kitchens are cleaned to the same standard as the production floor, and the catalogue describes the condition of each lot.
The estates on this side of the city were laid out for industrial traffic, and where a unit has a loading bay and a forklift the lots can be pallet wrapped and moved quickly. We confirm the access and the loading arrangements on the first visit. We usually sell the canteen as a section within the wider factory sale, but if the caterer's contract ends before the factory does, we run it on its own.
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 Hull
- The park changes hands in January. Can the sale be over before the new owner takes the keys?
Probably, if we start in good time. Allow a week or so to catalogue, a viewing day, a fortnight of bidding and a collection window of a few days after that, with the run moving to suit the number of lots and the access. Six weeks from the first call is a comfortable timetable. Tell us the completion date and we work back from it, and if the new owner wants some of the equipment, they can bid like anyone else or agree a private treaty price on the main items before the auction opens.
- Our canteen kitchen is on the first floor of the factory. Does that put buyers off?
It needs more planning, and buyers price the removal in, but it does not stop a sale. We walk the route out before we list anything, checking the goods lift and its capacity, the stair and whether a forklift can reach the floor, and that goes in the catalogue. How each item comes down depends on its weight and that route, with suitable handling or a specialist crew where needed, and a cold room comes apart into panels. Where the route defeats trade collection, the lots can be moved to our own premises for sale instead.
More questions about catering equipment