Britannia AuctionsComplete site dispersal auctions in Peterborough
Diesel engines, farm machinery and the firms that machine parts for both have given Peterborough a stock of serious engineering plant. When one of those suppliers closes, on Fengate or at Orton Southgate, the building holds horizontal machining centres, engine test cells, gear cutters and a tool room, with a paint plant and a packing line at the far end. The city's print and food firms bring a different set of assets, presses and finishing lines in one case, stainless conveyors and chillers in the other.
We treat the whole site as one job. The catalogue runs from the largest machine to the last shelf in the stores, the auction closes on one day, and buyers collect in an agreed window. A person deals with you from the first visit to the final account, whether the site is a single unit or a factory with a hundred people leaving.
Engine and agricultural plant is lotted with its tooling
Engine remanufacturers and agricultural engineers in Stamford, Spalding, Wisbech and March run the same kinds of plant, and they are an easy drive from a viewing day for a boring machine, a crank grinder, a dynamometer or a gear hobber. Tooling, gauges and spares matter as much as the machines to a buyer of that kind, so we lot the stores by machine and by type rather than as one job lot. Online bidding brings in the national trade for the CNC plant and the inspection equipment.
Print and packaging plant has its own trade. A sheet fed press or a die cutter is catalogued for printers across the East of England and for dealers who export, with the finishing equipment around it. Food processing lines are listed for processors along the A47 and for dealers in stainless plant. All of it can sit in the same catalogue and close in the same week.
Small workshops and national depots need different plans
A single workshop on Fengate might be catalogued in a day and cleared in a week, depending on the number of lots. A national depot at Alwalton with racking to the roof and a fleet of forklifts is a different scale, and the plan has to allow for hundreds of bays of racking coming down while the vehicles are still being collected. We stage that, handling kit first and racking second, so the buyers of racking have an empty floor to work on.
Access is checked unit by unit. The A1139 parkway links the estates, the A1(M) is a short run from Orton Southgate, and the A47 takes a low loader east or west. The older units at Woodston can have tighter yards, and we say in the notes where a rigid lorry is the largest vehicle that will fit. Rigging of the heavy lots is by the buyer's contractor to a method statement we approve first.
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 Peterborough
- The site was a supplier to one engine maker and much of the tooling is specific to their parts. Will it sell?
Some of it. Fixtures and gauges built for one part number have a narrow market, though the customer or another supplier to them will sometimes buy the lot to keep production going. General tooling, tool holders, inserts and measuring equipment suit any machine shop and are lotted for one. Our advice is to catalogue it all and let the sale decide. We group the customer specific tooling by part so a bidder who wants it can take it in one go, and it costs nothing to offer.
- We still have work in progress on the machines. When should we stop production?
Finish the orders you can invoice and then stop. Once we have taken the inventory the site should not change, because buyers bid on what they saw at the viewing. Machines that can safely be run stay connected for the viewing day so your staff can demonstrate them, and everything else is isolated and left safe. Work in progress that will not be finished is either returned to the customer, sold as material or scrapped, and we help you sort that before the catalogue is written.
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.