Britannia AuctionsComplete site dispersal auctions in Portsmouth
Portsmouth is a city on an island, and that shapes a site dispersal here more than the machines do. The older estates at Fratton, Cosham and Paulsgrove hold workshops that grew up serving the dockyard, and their doors, yards and lanes were laid out long before articulated lorries. Every removal plan starts with a question about the route out, and the answer decides how the heavy lots are described.
The plant itself is familiar. Precision machining centres and grinders from defence subcontractors. Surface mount lines, reflow ovens and test benches from electronics firms. Marine engineering shops with lathes, presses, welding bays and lifting gear. We catalogue all of it in one list, sell it in one online timed auction, and stay with the site until the last buyer has collected and the building is empty.
Test and inspection kit is catalogued item by item
On a defence or electronics site the biggest lot is not always the one that needs the most work. A coordinate measuring machine, an environmental test chamber, a bank of oscilloscopes or a calibrated set of gauges is catalogued as carefully as the milling machine beside it, because bidding for test equipment is online and open to the whole of the UK. We photograph each item with its serial plate and calibration label, list the last calibration date where there is one, and lot the small instruments so that a bench of meters sells as a bench rather than as a drawer of oddments.
Machine tools from the precision shops suit the same trade in Havant, Fareham, Gosport and Waterlooville and the newer manufacturing units at Dunsbury Park, all within a comfortable drive of the viewing day. Boatbuilding and sailmaking plant from Trafalgar Wharf is listed for the marine trade along the south coast. Everything is on one catalogue and closes on one day.
Off the island by the M275 and away
The M275 runs straight from the M27 into the city, so a loaded wagon leaving the Airport Industrial Estate at Hilsea reaches the motorway without crossing the centre. What each unit takes is another matter. Some doors will not take a rigid lorry, some yards are shared, and a few workshops at Fratton and Farlington sit behind terraced streets where a crane has to be booked with the council. We walk each route before the catalogue goes live and put the answer in the lot notes.
The sequence is agreed with you, usually heavy lots first and small lots after, so a crane is not waiting behind a van. Buyers book and pay for the removal of their lots, whether that is their own van from Chichester, Petersfield, Emsworth or Southampton, or a haulier. When the last lot has gone the building is left swept, with the services isolated and a photograph of every bay.
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 Portsmouth
- Our workshop holds equipment that was used on naval contracts. Are there restrictions on selling it?
Sometimes. Machines and general test equipment are usually free to sell, but items that were supplied against a contract, or that hold drawings, data or customer owned fixtures, may belong to the customer or need their sign off before sale. We ask you to identify anything of that kind at the site visit, and we set it aside until the position is clear. Plant that is subject to export controls is listed with that noted, so a buyer knows what they are bidding for.
- We are on the first floor of an old building near Fratton. Is that a problem for a site dispersal?
It is a rigging job before it is anything else, but it is not unusual. We measure the stairs, the goods lift, the loading door and the pavement outside, and describe how each heavy item came in and how it can leave. Buyers' riggers quote on that basis. Where a machine has to come out through a window on a crane, the bid reflects that cost, and we give you a view on the likely return before the sale opens.
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.