Britannia AuctionsFactory and workshop clearance in Bradford
A machine in a mill is a rigging job before it is anything else. Bradford still has textile plant in stone buildings with upper floors and sloping yards. Getting a frame or a dyeing machine out of one of those is the part of the clearance that takes planning, and the sale is arranged around it.
The other side of the district is a different job. Food manufacturers at Euroway and Dudley Hill leave stainless process kit, ovens, packing lines and cold stores, and the loading arrangements there are measured when we first visit as anywhere else. Printers and packaging firms on the Thornbury and Canal Road side leave presses, guillotines, folders and finishing lines.
We run one online auction for the contents, with a viewing day at the site, and removing what is fixed and what is left can be arranged where agreed. Describe the site and its access, and tell us your handover date.
Out of the mill and down the hill
On an older mill site the yard and the approach shape the clearance, so both are measured first: the gradient, the turning space, the loading door, the floor levels and what vehicle can stand where. Depending on what that shows, a heavy lot may be moved to a loading point and lifted onto a rigid lorry that meets a low loader on the flat. A machine on an upper floor may need a loading door or a removed window and a crane on the road, which takes a permit and a closure, applied for early where that is the route.
All of that goes into the catalogue so a bidder knows what collection involves. Where the site is too tight for buyers to collect, the plant can be moved to our own premises and sold from there.
Textile machinery has a narrower market than general engineering plant and some of it is bought overseas, so overseas bidders are given time to inspect and to arrange shipping before the sale closes.
Food plants and print works on the flat estates
Euroway, Dudley Hill and Staithgate Lane are a different kind of job, though the checks are the same: level access, the roller shutter door, room in the yard for buyers' vehicles and whether the road takes an artic. The answers set the collection window.
Food plant is bought by the trade across the north. Ovens, mixers, depositors, fryers, packing and labelling lines, stainless tables and cold rooms suit food firms and dealers, and Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield are close enough to reach a viewing day. Refrigeration is decommissioned by a certified engineer before it moves. Print and packaging kit, presses, guillotines, die cutters and folder gluers, has a national market and bidding is online.
The residue on a food site is usually stainless pipework, cable tray, drainage and the mezzanine over the packing hall. Stripping it out, weighing in what has scrap value and grinding the fixings flush can be arranged where agreed.
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 Bradford
- Our mill has machines on the second floor and no goods lift. Can they be sold in place?
They can, and often they are. We catalogue them as lots the buyer removes, with the method spelled out, and the buyer prices the crane and the window opening into their bid. Where the removal cost looks likely to hold interest back, a specialist contractor can bring the machine down before the sale, at a cost agreed with you first, so it is offered at ground level where it is easier to inspect. Either way, we walk the route out with you during our first visit and decide before the catalogue goes live.
- The landlord wants the floor back level after the mezzanine goes. Is that part of what you do?
Yes, where it is agreed. The mezzanine is sold as a dismantling lot or, if nobody wants it, taken down by a contractor after the loose lots have gone. Baseplates and bolts are ground flush and the holes filled. We agree the standard with you and the landlord first, so what the final inspection expects is settled in advance. Where a dilapidations schedule asks for more, such as making good walls or removing services, we can get that priced alongside the clearance.
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.