Britannia AuctionsFactory and workshop clearance in Aberdeen
An oil and gas service base at Altens or Tullos is two clearances in one. Inside is a workshop with machine tools, test bays, hydraulic power units, welding plant and stores racked to the roof with spares. Outside is a yard of containers, offshore baskets, lifting frames, skids and equipment that came back from the field. Both have to be gone and the hard standing clean before the lease is surrendered.
Much of this kit has a market beyond the north east of Scotland. Subsea tooling, inspection equipment, pressure test units and certified lifting gear suit service firms here and overseas, and bidding is online so all of them can reach the sale. Fabrication plant is more regional, and the yards up the A90 towards Peterhead are well placed to attend the viewing.
We catalogue the lot and run one timed online auction with a viewing day at the base. Clearing the residue and the yard afterwards can be arranged where agreed. Send us the site and the surrender date.
Yard kit that came back from the field
Offshore equipment is sold on its paperwork. A current certificate on a container, a basket, a skid or a lifting frame changes what it is worth, because without one it has to be retested before it goes back to work. We sort the yard on that basis first, pulling the certificates and test records together so each lot shows what a buyer needs to see, and gear past recertifying is weighed in.
Skids, pumps, winches and test units are photographed with their nameplates, because a buyer in another oil province works from the description alone. Overseas bidders are given time to inspect by video and arrange freight before the sale closes.
The route out is measured when we first visit: the gate, the turning space, the hard standing, and what a low loader or container lorry needs to reach the lots. Where a crane could stand and what permission that takes go in the catalogue too, so buyers know before they bid.
The stores nobody wants to count
The workshop clears like any engineering shop. Lathes, mills, borers, bandsaws, welding sets, compressors and the overhead crane suit fabricators and machine shops, bidding runs online and is not limited to the area, and the trade at Westhill, Inverurie, Stonehaven and Ellon is within reach of a viewing day. The crane stays or goes depending on the lease.
The stores are the part people underestimate. Racks of valves, flanges, seals, fittings, consumables and spares for equipment the firm no longer owns. Sorted and lotted by type, much of it sells to the supply trade. Unsorted, it is a skip. We put the time in, because on a service base the stores can be worth as much as the machines.
Contract ends and the oil price drive the timing, and the decision is often taken late. We can catalogue while the last job is finished, and the timetable follows the number of lots, the access and your surrender date.
What these sales can include
- Production machinery
- Machine tools and tooling
- Pallet racking and mezzanines
- Compressors and air receivers
- Extraction and filtration systems
- Overhead cranes and hoists
- Forklifts and pallet trucks
- Workbenches, cabinets and stores
- Electrical switchgear
- Office furniture and IT
- Scrap metal and redundant stock
- Vans and site vehicles
The auction stage
We catalogue every saleable item on site, from the main machines down to grouped lots of hand tools and stores. The sale runs online as a timed auction with a viewing day at the premises. The buyer pays the hammer price plus the premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately, and collects during an agreed window.
Lots are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding. They arrange and pay for dismantling and removal. Where an item must be taken down carefully, such as a mezzanine or an overhead crane, the catalogue says so and it is part of the lot.
You keep the premises accessible, safe and powered until collection ends. We attend to release lots. The more that leaves through the auction, the less there is to clear at cost afterwards.
The factory and workshop clearance page covers clearance is a different job from a sale, everything that has to come out, the clearance stage, timescales and what slows them down, when a clearance is the wrong approach.
Questions about selling in Aberdeen
- We have containers and baskets with out of date certificates. Are they worth anything?
Less than certified ones, but not nothing. A container or basket that is structurally sound can be offered as uncertified for the buyer to retest, and the cost of that retest is part of what a bidder weighs up. Anything damaged or beyond recertification is sold as scrap by weight. We separate the two when we walk the site and describe each lot accurately. Lots are offered as seen under the auction terms and buyers are expected to inspect, which is why the descriptions matter. Recertifying before the sale is sometimes worth it on the larger frames.
- Our base at Dyce has a customer's equipment in the yard awaiting return. How do you keep it apart?
By tagging it before anything is catalogued. We walk the yard with you and mark every item belonging to a customer or a hire company. It is collected or fenced off before the viewing day, and the catalogue is built only from what is left. Where ownership is unclear we hold the item back rather than sell it. Settling that early keeps it from becoming an argument on collection day.
More questions about factory clearance
Related services
Guides
- How a commercial asset auction works
A stage by stage account of an online timed auction for business assets. It covers the asset schedule, cataloguing, viewing days, how bidding closes, buyer's premium and VAT, collection and how you get paid.
- Preparing machinery and equipment for sale
What to do before viewing day. Keep the machines that can be run safely available to demonstrate, isolate the rest, clean but do not repaint, find the tooling and manuals, and sort out access for removal.