Britannia AuctionsFactory and workshop clearance in Leeds
Leeds units empty for the same reasons as anywhere else, lease ends, retirement, insolvency, a move to a bigger shed, but the contents are particular to the city. Print and packaging firms leave presses, guillotines, folders and stitchers. Metal processing shops in Hunslet and Stourton leave saws, presses, brakes and stock. Food producers leave stainless plant and cold stores. Trade counters on the same estates leave racking and a mezzanine.
The industrial belt south of the centre is a few minutes from the M621, which shortens the run in for buyers' vehicles, though the yard, the dock and the door are still measured when we first visit and the findings go in the catalogue.
We auction everything with a market, and removing the rest can be arranged where agreed. Send us the address and the date the building has to be empty.
Print and packaging kit from the south of the city
A print factory sells in layers. The presses are the headline lots, bids are placed online and the sale is open to the print trade across the UK and to dealers who export. Finishing equipment, guillotines, folders, laminators and stitching lines, suits the same buyers and smaller shops, and the trade at Bradford, Wakefield, Halifax and Huddersfield is well placed to attend the viewing. Then there are the pallets of paper and board, the plates, the inks, the racking they sat on.
Presses need a specialist to dismantle and move, and the buyer usually brings their own. We write that into the catalogue so nobody expects to walk out with a five colour press on a pallet truck. The floor beneath a press may need making good, and that is a strip out job we plan with the landlord.
Packaging and converting plant follows the same pattern. The machines sell, the stock sells in bulk, the racking sells to the trade and the residue goes for recycling.
A clearance that works back from the motorway
Where the estate sits shapes the plan. Hunslet, Stourton, Cross Green and Leeds Valley Park are within a few minutes of the M621 or M1, and on our first visit we confirm what the yard, the dock and the door actually take. The trade at Castleford, Dewsbury, Halifax and up the A1 towards York is close enough to view and collect in a day.
That helps compress the timetable. Bidding usually runs a week or two with the viewing day inside it, then an agreed collection window, then the strip out. For a single unit with good access and nothing heavy fixed in, a few weeks from instruction to handover is a realistic plan rather than a promise.
What stretches it is fixed plant. Extraction, compressed air ring mains, a mezzanine floor or a cold store all need taking down after the lots have gone, and the landlord's requirements for the floor and services decide how long that takes.
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 Leeds
- Our lease in Hunslet ends on the September quarter day. Is six weeks enough?
For a single unit it usually is. Cataloguing takes about a week, bidding a week or two after that, then the collection window, which leaves the rest for the strip out and any making good. Those spans move with the number of lots, the access and how quickly buyers pay. If there is heavy fixed plant, a paint line, a mezzanine or a large cold store, six weeks is tight and we would want the contractor booked from the start. Call early enough and we plan it all from the handover date backwards.
- We have a mezzanine full of stock. Does the stock sell or go in the skip?
More of it than owners expect is worth offering. Consumables, spare parts, packaging and finished goods are lotted in groups that suit trade buyers, and how they are lotted and reserved makes the difference. What is out of date, damaged, obsolete or of no use to anyone goes for recycling or to a clearance buyer as a single lot. The mezzanine itself is sold to a racking buyer or a dealer, who takes it down after the stock has gone. That order matters, so we plan collection around it.
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.