Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Leicester
Leicester's catering kit comes from two very different kinds of building. In the city there are restaurants, cafes, takeaways and bars on older streets, many of them in converted shops with the kitchen at the back and a cold room where the yard used to be. On the outer estates there are staff canteens and contract kitchens inside the food processing plants and the distribution sheds around Meridian Business Park and the M1 corridor.
We sell both by online timed auction. The city kitchen is usually a lease end, with the landlord waiting for the keys. The canteen is usually a site closing or a contract caterer pulling out, and the equipment is often newer and heavier. Either way we catalogue on site, run the bidding for a week or two, and clear the premises on fixed collection days. Tell us the address and the date you need to be out, and we will take it from there.
Back street kitchens and canteens on the estates
A restaurant kitchen in a terraced street off the city centre is a different job from a canteen in a shed at Enderby. The restaurant has a six burner range, a couple of fryers, an upright fridge or two and a cold room that was built in place. Access is through the front door or a narrow passage, and the extraction canopy has to be taken down with care because the neighbours are close. Buyers arrive in vans, and the handling for the heavier lots is agreed to suit the route.
The canteen has a bigger combination oven, a hot cupboard run, a serve over counter, a commercial dishwasher with a conveyor and a walk in freezer. Where the unit has a loading bay and a forklift, the whole lot can be out quickly, which is one of the things we check before the catalogue goes out.
We write the catalogue to suit the building, and we tell buyers in the listing what the access is like so nobody turns up with the wrong vehicle.
Reach across the East Midlands
Catering equipment is bought to be used, so the trade within an hour's drive matters. Loughborough, Market Harborough and Melton Mowbray have the pub and restaurant trade, Wigston and Oadby the cafes, and all of it is well placed for the viewing day. Refrigeration and stainless steel are the kind of lots a dealer can take in quantity, so they are lotted with that in mind.
Bidding is online, so the higher value lots are open to buyers anywhere in the UK. Whether carriage is worth paying on a combination oven or an ice machine is the buyer's calculation, and the description and the photographs are what they make it on.
On an estate the collection is a forklift and a pallet truck, where the site has them. On a city street it is a van, a booked slot and a route checked in advance.
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 Leicester
- Our lease on the restaurant ends at the quarter day. Can you clear it by then?
Usually, if you call four to six weeks before. Allow a few days to catalogue and photograph, a week or two of bidding and a collection window of a day or two after the sale closes, with the run depending on the lot count and the access. Working back from the quarter day leaves time to have the gas capped by a registered engineer and the kitchen cleaned before the landlord inspects. If the date is closer than that, we can collect the equipment and sell it from our own premises instead.
- The canteen belongs to a contract caterer, not to us. Who owns the equipment?
It depends on the contract. Some caterers bring their own equipment and take it with them when the contract ends. Others use equipment the site owner bought, and the caterer only operates it. Read the catering agreement before you call us, and check whether any of the heavier items are on lease or hire. We list only what you can show is yours to sell. Anything on finance, hire purchase or lease remains the funder's property until it is settled, and it can only be sold with their agreement.
More questions about catering equipment