Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in London
Nowhere turns over restaurants like London, and nowhere makes them harder to clear. A kitchen in a basement under a busy street, with a red route outside and a lift that only takes a trolley, is the normal case rather than the exception. The equipment is usually good, because the fit outs were expensive, and the buyers are close by, because the trade is dense. Everything between those two facts is logistics.
Outer London is the other half of the job. Park Royal holds food producers with production kitchens and staff canteens, and delivery only kitchens in shared units. Brimsdown, Dagenham, Purley Way and Hayes hold distribution depots with staff kitchens beside the dock doors.
We sell both by online timed auction. Where a central site cannot take trade collection, the kitchen can be collected and sold from our own premises.
Basement kitchens and a red route outside
Central London collection is a timing problem before it is a lifting problem. Loading is restricted on most streets during the day, the Direct Vision Standard rules apply to larger lorries, the Low Emission Zone rules out some older vans, and a van standing on a red route for ten minutes collects a fine.
Where it suits the site, small lots go out first and early through the trade door, and the ranges, dishwashers, canopies and cold room panels are grouped into a booked slot, often in the evening or on a Sunday when the restrictions lift. What will handle a basement stair depends on the weight, the turn and the headroom, so the equipment or the specialist crew is agreed for that route.
All of it goes in the listing so buyers can price the removal before they bid. Operators across the boroughs are close enough to attend a viewing day, and anything that fits in a box can travel by courier.
Production kitchens on the western estates
Park Royal and Hayes hold kitchens that most cities do not have in quantity. Food producers making ready meals, sandwiches, salads and bakery goods run production kitchens: bratt pans, tilting kettles, rack ovens, blast chillers, spiral mixers and long runs of stainless steel benching, all in a temperature controlled unit with a loading bay. When a producer loses a contract or moves out to the M25, that equipment suits other producers, contract caterers, dealers and the larger restaurant groups.
The delivery only kitchens in shared units are smaller and faster. A short cooking line, a fridge run, a dishwasher and a canopy, often only a year or two old, and a landlord who wants the unit back on a set date.
Where a unit has a dock leveller and a forklift the collection is pallets rather than a stair, and we confirm the access and the loading arrangements before the catalogue goes out. Watford, Slough, Dartford and Romford are 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 London
- Our restaurant is in a shared building with a concierge and no trade door. Can you still sell on site?
Sometimes. We ask the building manager what the rules are for contractors, whether there is a goods lift and what hours it can be used. If buyers can be escorted in and out in booked slots, we run the sale on site. If the building will not allow it, or the lift is too small for a range, the kitchen can be collected in one managed visit and sold from our own premises. Which route we propose depends on the lots, the building and the timetable.
- The delivery only kitchen has six separate operators in one unit. Whose equipment is it?
That is the first thing to sort out. In most shared kitchens the landlord provides the extraction, the gas supply, the wash up and some fixed equipment, and each operator brings their own cooking line and refrigeration. We go through the licence agreements with you and label every lot with its owner before anything is photographed. Where several operators want to sell at once, one auction with a section for each works well, and each seller is accounted to separately once the sale is reconciled from cleared funds.
More questions about catering equipment