Britannia AuctionsComplete site dispersal auctions in Coventry
Coventry's engineering is built around the vehicle plants, and that shapes what a site dispersal here looks like. A tooling shop or component maker on Binley or Bayton Road that has lost its main contract, or whose owner is retiring, has a building full of equipment bought to serve automotive customers. Press tools and the presses that ran them. Machining centres and grinders. Welding and assembly cells. A tool room with surface grinders, spark eroders and a stores full of cutters and inserts.
One sale clears all of it. We catalogue every item on the site, sell it in one online timed auction, and stay through the collection window while riggers and van buyers empty the building.
The automotive trade around the city is close enough to walk the lots on the viewing day, and the sale is online and open to bidders anywhere in the UK.
Tool rooms, cells and the stores behind them
The value on a Coventry engineering site is often in the tool room. A well kept surface grinder, a wire eroder or a jig borer is the kind of machine a smaller shop in Nuneaton or Rugby looks at, and those towns are near enough to come and see the lots. We sell these as single lots with the accessories that belong to them, and we resist the temptation to strip a machine of its chucks and vices to make extra lots, because a machine offered complete is easier for a buyer to value.
Assembly and welding cells are a harder sell as complete units. Robots and controllers are lotted apart from jigs built for a specific part, because the two have very different audiences.
The stores go in lots that a buyer can assess. Cutters and inserts by the drawer, bar stock by the rack, fasteners by the shelf. It looks like small money, but a well lotted stores is worth offering, and it leaves in vans rather than a skip.
What we check before the heavy lots are listed
Most Coventry estates were laid out for lorries, and the M6, M69 and A46 are all a few minutes from Binley, Exhall and the parks near the airport. Access is still assessed unit by unit. At the first visit we record the approach and the turning room, the door dimensions, the floor levels and any shared yard, because the buyer of a press or a machining centre has to get it out and the cost of that comes off the bid.
The order of the window is agreed with you. Buyers organise and pay for removal, including riggers for the heavy plant, working to a method statement agreed before the day, and electrical disconnection is by qualified people before anything moves. Racking, benches and the office contents usually follow once the floor is clear.
The trade in Nuneaton, Rugby, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Kenilworth, Solihull, Birmingham and Hinckley is near enough to come and see the lots, and bidding is online and open nationally. On the newer parks at Ryton and Middlemarch the distribution kit and racking are catalogued for the logistics trade as well.
What these sales can include
- Complete production lines
- CNC lathes and machining centres
- Presses, guillotines and folders
- Overhead cranes and hoists
- Compressors and air receivers
- Forklift trucks
- Racking and storage systems
- Tooling, spares and consumables
- Inspection and test equipment
- Welding and fabrication equipment
- Office furniture and IT equipment
- Canteen and welfare equipment
- Vehicles and trailers
The auction
The sale runs as an online timed auction, open for bidding for a fixed period with a viewing day at the site before the close. Lots close in sequence, and a late bid extends the closing time for that lot so nobody is beaten by the clock. Bidders register online, and the sale is advertised to the trade for that type of equipment.
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 on the invoice. Once paid, the buyer collects within the agreed window. Our staff are on site throughout collection to check off each lot and control access.
For very large sites the sale may be split into two or more auctions, so the building empties in stages and production can continue in one area while another is cleared.
The complete site dispersal auctions page covers what a site dispersal involves, preparing the site, removal and heavy lifting, timescales and what to expect.
Questions about selling in Coventry
- Our main customer has pulled the contract and wants their press tools back. Does that stop the sale?
No. The customer's tools are theirs and go back to them, and we set them aside before cataloguing. Everything else, the presses, the machines, the tool room and the stores, is yours to sell. It is common on Coventry sites for a good share of the tooling to be customer owned, so we start with a clear list of what belongs to whom. Once that is settled the sale runs as normal.
- We want to try selling the site as a going concern first. Can we still book an auction date?
Yes, and it is sensible to run both in parallel. We can catalogue the site now and hold the auction date while you talk to buyers for the whole business. If a going concern sale completes, the auction is cancelled. If it does not, the sale goes ahead on the planned date without losing weeks. A buyer of the whole business will usually want a view of what the plant is worth, and the catalogue gives them one.
More questions about site dispersals
Related services
Guides
- Auction or private treaty: which route to choose
Auction gives you a fixed date and an open market. Private treaty gives you a negotiated price and privacy. This guide sets out when each route suits, what you give up with each, and why many sales use both.
- Closing a business: a timeline for selling the assets
Work backwards from the day you hand the site over. This guide covers lease end and dilapidations, when to instruct, when staff should leave, when to keep the power on, and how to leave enough room for collection and making good.
- What insolvency practitioners need from an auctioneer
For office holders realising physical assets. Covers the instruction letter, the asset schedule and valuation basis, retention of title, finance checks, site security, health and safety during the sale, and the reconciliation you need for the file.