Britannia AuctionsFactory and workshop clearance in Portsmouth
Portsea Island has one motorway in and the same one out, and that shapes every clearance on it. The M275 keeps the run in short for the Airport Industrial Estate at Hilsea, while the older units at Fratton and around the centre sit on streets laid out long before articulated vehicles, so we measure the road, the turning space and the door first.
What comes out of Portsmouth units is lighter than in most industrial cities. Defence electronics and precision manufacturing firms leave test benches, oscilloscopes and signal kit, ESD flooring, small CNC machines, coordinate measuring machines, soldering and rework stations and a stores full of components. Marine engineers and boatbuilders at Trafalgar Wharf and along the harbour leave the heavier items, hoists, welding plant, cradles and the machine shop.
We catalogue it all and sell in one timed auction online, and the removal of what is left can be arranged where agreed. Tell us where you are and when you have to be out.
Precision kit that goes out in a van
A defence electronics contract ends and the workshop that supported it has to close by the date in the surrender. Most of the contents will fit in a van, which changes the sale. Test equipment, calibration kit, microscopes, rework stations, small mills and lathes and the component stores are items known by model and condition, and small enough that carriage costs little. Bidding is online and open to buyers from any part of the country, so the market is wide whether or not they inspect in person.
The exceptions are the screened room, the clean area, the ESD floor and the partitioning. A screened enclosure sells if it can be dismantled and reassembled, and we catalogue it that way. The floor and the partitioning are strip out. Anything with a security marking or a customer's drawings on it is separated before cataloguing and returned or destroyed on instruction, with a record kept.
Marine sheds where the road decides the plan
Boat sheds at Portchester and the marine engineers around the harbour are the heavy end. Travel hoists, gantry cranes, cradles, trailers, welding and fabrication plant and machine tools suit yards along the Solent, and the trade at Gosport, Fareham and Emsworth is a short run from a viewing day for anyone who wants to see the kit. Where the shed opens onto the water rather than the road, the heavy lots are craned out and the catalogue says so.
Older estates at Fratton, Cosham, Paulsgrove and Farlington have tighter yards and shared access. We give collection slots by the hour, stage the heavy lots at the door and book the low loader for a time the neighbours can live with.
Naval and defence work runs on contract dates rather than seasons, so the clearance is planned back from the date the contract ends, with the auction closing a fortnight or so before the keys go back.
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 Portsmouth
- Some of our equipment was bought under a government contract. Can it go in the auction?
Only once title is clear. Equipment bought with contract funding is sometimes owned by the customer, and equipment on a defence contract may carry conditions on disposal. We ask for the contract terms and the asset register at the start, separate anything the customer owns or controls, and catalogue the rest. Items the customer must approve are held back until that approval is in writing. It is the same check we make for anything on finance or lease, and it stops a sale being unwound later.
- Our unit is on a back street in Fratton with no yard. How does collection work?
By appointment, one vehicle at a time. We look at the street, agree a place a rigid lorry or a van can stand, and give each buyer a slot. Heavy lots can be moved to the door beforehand, with suitable handling equipment or a specialist where the weight calls for it, so the buyer's vehicle is loaded and gone. If the street cannot take a lorry for the largest item, it can be collected in a smaller vehicle and sold from our own premises. The cost of that is agreed with you before the catalogue is written.
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.