Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle has a large night time trade, and it changes hands constantly. Bars, late venues and restaurants in the city centre and along the river close and reopen as leases end, and every change leaves behind a bar, a cellar, a kitchen and a room of furniture. The hotels that serve the offshore and engineering firms fill up with crews on rotation and refit their kitchens on a schedule.
Along the Tyne the offshore and marine engineering yards at Walker and Newburn run staff canteens for their workforce, and the distribution firms on the estates around the A1 Western Bypass and at Team Valley across the river do the same. Those canteens come to market when a contract ends or a yard closes.
We sell all of it by online timed auction, from the premises where access allows. Tell us the building, the floor and the date it must be empty.
Late venues, riverside bars and the crew hotels
A city centre bar sale here is mostly cellar and back bar. Remote beer coolers, python lines, bottle fridges, ice machines and glasswashers are what the trade is after, and the furniture follows. Kitchens in these venues are often small, a flat top and a fryer behind a hatch. A restaurant is the other way round, with the value in the ranges, the combination oven, the fryers and the refrigeration.
Access in the centre and on the riverside is tight. Many of the venues are in older buildings on narrow streets with no rear yard, and the kitchen may be in a basement. We check the route out before we list, and we book collection early in the morning with a slot for each buyer.
The hotels that house offshore crews and site contractors have kitchens built for early breakfasts and late dinners, plus a lot of plain, hard wearing bedroom and restaurant furniture. Where there is a goods lift the collection is simpler, and we check its size and its capacity on the visit.
Canteens on the Tyne and across the river
The engineering yards on the riverside feed their workforce on site, and a yard canteen is a serious kitchen: a big range, boiling pans, a hot cupboard run, a bulk dishwasher and a walk in fridge, sized for a shift that eats at the same time. When a yard closes or the catering contract changes, that equipment goes into a sale alongside the fabrication and machining plant, and we catalogue it as its own section so caterers can find it.
The older riverside roads at Walker are narrow in places, so we check the approach and the turning space and say in the catalogue what vehicle the site will take. On the estates around the bypass and at Team Valley we do the same, and the answer is usually a larger one.
Bidding runs online and is open to bidders anywhere in the UK, and Gateshead, North Shields, Cramlington and Durham are within a comfortable drive of the viewing day. The movable lots, ovens and espresso machines, can travel by pallet courier.
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 Newcastle upon Tyne
- Our restaurant is in a listed building on the quayside. Can the extraction canopy be sold?
Only if it is yours and the lease allows its removal. Canopies are fixtures, and in a listed building the landlord may also need consent for anything that changes the fabric. Read the lease and ask the landlord in writing before we list it. If it can go, it comes down in sections and the buyer makes good the holes, which we state in the catalogue. If it cannot, we leave it out and sell the rest. The canopy is rarely the valuable part anyway.
- The yard canteen has been run by a contract caterer for years. What do we need to check before you sell it?
Four things. Who owns each item, which is usually in the catering contract or the original purchase records. Whether anything is on lease or hire, in which case the finance company must consent before it is sold. Whether the yard's security procedures let outside buyers on site to view and collect. And whether the closure timetable leaves enough days for a viewing and a collection. Once those are settled the sale is straightforward, and the loading and lifting arrangements are agreed with the yard.
More questions about catering equipment