Britannia AuctionsFactory and workshop clearance in Bristol
Two kinds of site come up for clearance around Bristol and they could not be more different. On the north fringe near Filton, precision machining and composites firms in the aerospace supply chain leave CNC centres, coordinate measuring machines, autoclaves and ovens, clean rooms and calibrated inspection kit in units that were laid out for accuracy rather than for lorries. At Avonmouth and Severnside, distribution and food and drink operators leave warehouses full of racking, forklifts, conveyors and process plant, with yards and doors built around lorry movements.
Then there are the inner city sites. St Philips Marsh and Brislington have older units where the street, the shared yard and the door decide the collection plan, and we measure all three.
We handle all of these the same way. An online timed auction with a viewing day, collection in an agreed window, then a strip out where agreed. The timetable follows the number of lots, the access and your handover date.
Machining and composites shops from the aerospace chain
What a precision machine makes turns on its specification, its condition and the history that comes with it. Machining centres, grinders, EDM machines, CMMs and surface plates suit subcontract shops across the UK, and the calibration records, service history, manuals and tooling are part of what a bidder is judging. We keep those with the lot rather than tipping them in a skip on the last day.
Composites equipment, autoclaves, curing ovens, freezers for prepreg and clean room enclosures, has a narrower market spread more thinly across the country, so the sale is given time and the lots are photographed properly. An autoclave is a pressure vessel with a removal method of its own, and it is catalogued that way.
Bidding is online and open across the UK, and the trade at Yate, Thornbury, Bath and Keynsham is a short run from a viewing day. The M4 and M5 at Almondsbury put a haulier on the road to anywhere.
Inner city yards against the flat estates at Avonmouth
Where the site is decides how the clearance runs. On Avonmouth and at Cabot Park we check what the yard and the dock will take first. Where articulated lorries and low loaders reach the door, racking, forklifts, conveyors and process plant are collected on agreed days and the strip out can follow.
In St Philips Marsh or Brislington the units are older and the streets around them are shared with other traders. We book collection slots so the yard is not blocked, move the heavy lots to the door where a hiab is the answer, and where the road will not take a low loader the plant can be sold from our own premises.
Waste and recycling operations on the port estate leave balers, shredders, conveyors and picking lines, which are heavy and usually worth cataloguing in detail. They want a clean down before viewing, and the lifting method is agreed for the site rather than assumed.
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 Bristol
- Our aerospace customer has to approve anything leaving the site. Does that delay the sale?
It can if it is left late, so we raise it at the site visit. Customer owned tooling, fixtures, gauges and drawings are separated and returned before the catalogue is written, and anything under export control or with a customer marking is held back rather than sold. Once that is done the remaining machinery is yours to sell and the auction runs to the normal timetable. If the customer wants a list of what is leaving, we give them the catalogue.
- The unit is in St Philips Marsh with a shared access lane. How do buyers collect?
By appointment, in a window we set for each lot. We stagger the times so vans and lorries are not queued in the lane, and heavy lots are moved to the door ready for the vehicle rather than collected from the far end of the shop. If a machine needs a crane and the lane cannot take one, a lift can be arranged for a booked day with a closure, and the machine sent on a low loader from the nearest flat road. All of that is in the catalogue before bidding opens.
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.