Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Sheffield
Works canteens, student bars, pub kitchens and city centre restaurants. That is the mix of catering equipment that comes up for sale in Sheffield, and each one brings a different buyer.
The canteens are the ones people forget. The steel and engineering firms of the Lower Don Valley have fed their shifts on site for a long time, and when a works at Attercliffe or Tinsley closes, the canteen kitchen goes with it. It is usually solid equipment, a big range, a hot cupboard run, a bulk dishwasher and a couple of upright fridges, bought to last and serviced by the maintenance team. The student side of the city turns over bars and takeaways every summer, and the pubs in the outer districts change hands when the tenant gives up.
We sell all of it by online timed auction, catalogued on site where the access allows, and from our own premises where it does not.
The canteen goes with the works
When we sell a steelworks or a machine shop, the canteen is often the last part anyone thinks about. It should not be. A works canteen kitchen in the Don Valley is heavy duty equipment, and where the building has a loading bay and a forklift it is among the simpler catering sales to clear. The market is contract caterers, school and college kitchens, cafe owners and the bigger pub operators, and much of it can be loaded onto a tail lift lorry.
We catalogue the canteen as its own section of the site sale so the catering buyers can find it without wading through the machine tools. The hot cupboards, serve over counters, combination ovens and the dishwasher line go as individual lots. The crockery, cutlery, cleaning kit and trolleys go as bulk lots so they clear on the day.
Where a works is being cleared on an insolvency timetable, we can propose a shorter run of about three weeks, depending on how many lots there are and the access.
Bars, takeaways and a tight back lane
The other side of the Sheffield trade is the small venue: the pizza takeaway near the universities, the bar in a converted shop, the cafe on a parade of shops, the pub on a hill with a cellar and a kitchen up a flight of stairs. These sales are short, forty to a hundred lots, and a few of them usually account for most of the value. A pizza oven, a good espresso machine, a glasswasher and the beer coolers are the ones to describe in full. The tables and chairs fill the catalogue out.
Access is the thing to plan. Sheffield is hilly and many of these units have a back lane that a van can just reach. We photograph the route out and put it in the listing, and we book collection in short slots so two buyers are not blocking the lane at once.
Online bidding opens the sale to bidders anywhere in the UK, and Rotherham, Barnsley, Chesterfield and Doncaster are near enough to come and see the lots. Small items can travel by 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 Sheffield
- Our pub tenancy ends in six weeks. Does the pub company own the kitchen or do we?
Check the tenancy agreement and the inventory you signed at the start. Pub tenancies usually list the fixtures that belong to the landlord, and the kitchen may be on that list. Anything you bought during the tenancy, a new fryer, an espresso machine, extra fridges or the outdoor furniture, should be in your own records. We will go through the inventory with you before we list anything, because selling a landlord's fixture causes trouble at the end of the tenancy that nobody needs.
- The canteen has a walk in freezer full of stock. Can you sell the stock as well?
We can, within limits. Frozen and ambient stock that is in date and sealed can be sold as bulk lots to caterers and trade buyers, and it makes sense to do that while the freezer is still running. Open stock is better disposed of. If the site's power is being cut off on a set date, tell us, because the freezer has to be emptied and defrosted before collection. Equipment that can be run safely stays connected for the viewing day, and the rest is isolated.
More questions about catering equipment