Britannia AuctionsCatering and hospitality equipment auctions in Swansea
Look at Swansea from the catering side and a few areas stand out. The SA1 waterfront and the Fabian Way corridor hold the newer restaurants and bars, fitted out in the last decade in purpose built units with delivery bays and lifts. The city centre has the older restaurants and takeaways above and below street level. The Enterprise Park at Llansamlet holds the trade counters, the wholesalers, the food producers and the factory canteens. The towns around the city, Neath, Pontardawe, Ammanford and Llanelli, hold the pubs and cafes that change hands when a tenant retires.
Each brings a different sale and a different buyer, and the catering trade counters on the Enterprise Park are part of the market as well as part of the supply, because clean equipment can be refurbished and resold.
We run online timed auctions from the premises and collect only when the building makes that necessary.
Waterfront units with a delivery bay and a lift
The restaurants along the SA1 waterfront and the Fabian Way corridor are usually the simpler street sites. The buildings are recent and the kitchens were designed in from the start, so there is often a delivery bay at the back with a lift or a level route to it, which we check on the visit. The equipment is generally the same age as the building, so a sale here is often a full modern kitchen, combination ovens, induction hobs, blast chillers, walk in cold rooms and a dishwasher line, plus a bar and front of house furniture to match.
Where the route out is straightforward, we sell from the premises and book buyers into collection slots across a day, with the catalogue saying what vehicle the bay will take. Extraction canopies are the exception. They are sold to be dismantled and the buyer must bring the crew for it.
Bidding is online and open to bidders well beyond the area, and the South Wales trade is close enough to inspect the lots before the sale closes.
When the trade counters are the buyers
Swansea Enterprise Park is where the region's catering equipment dealers, wholesalers, refrigeration engineers and gas fitters trade from. That is useful to a seller, because clean upright fridges, dishwashers, ranges and coffee machines can be lotted in quantity for a buyer taking a lorry load rather than a vanload.
The Enterprise Park also sells. Factory and warehouse canteens at Llansamlet and Morriston come to market when a firm consolidates, and where the unit has a loading bay and the road takes a large vehicle those sales are pallet jobs. We confirm that before the catalogue goes out.
Sellers sometimes ask whether to sell direct to a dealer instead. A dealer's offer is a useful reference point, and at auction the same dealer bids against the operators who would otherwise buy from them. We will give you a view on which route suits before you commit.
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 Swansea
- The pub in the valleys has been in the family for decades and the kitchen is old. Is any of it worth selling?
Usually more than sellers expect. Stainless steel tables and sinks wear slowly, and a solidly built gas range can still be wanted at twenty years old, though condition and specification decide it. Refrigeration is the weak point, because older fridges with tired compressors are hard to place, and we will say so rather than list them. The pub furniture, the bar counter, the bottle coolers and the glasswasher are worth including. We look at photographs first and tell you whether a sale on site makes sense or whether we should collect it and sell it from our own premises.
- Our unit on the Enterprise Park is a cash and carry with catering display fridges. Is that a catering sale?
It is close enough that the same buyers bid. Serve over counters, multideck display fridges, chest freezers, the cold room and the checkout tills are all catering and food retail equipment, and cafe owners, convenience store operators, restaurant groups and other wholesalers are the market for them. The shelving and racking sells to a separate set of buyers, and we catalogue it as its own section. Because the unit is on an estate with a loading bay, collection is pallets and lorries, usually inside a day or two.
More questions about catering equipment