Britannia AuctionsFactory and workshop clearance in Sunderland
When a supply contract ends at the car plant, the supplier's unit often ends with it. Around the Washington estates at Pattinson and Armstrong, that means a pressings shop, a moulding hall, a seating line or a trim shop that has to be out of the building by the date on the surrender. The presses, injection moulders, robot cells and conveyors are the saleable part. The pipework, the busbar, the racking and the far corner are the rest.
We handle both. The auction runs online over a week or two with a viewing day at the unit. Buyers collect in an agreed window, and the rigging and strip out that follow can be arranged where agreed, so the landlord gets an empty shell. Tooling that belongs to the customer is separated before anything goes in the catalogue.
Tell us what is in the unit and the date the keys go back.
Supplier units when the car contract ends
Automotive suppliers leave a particular mix. Mechanical and hydraulic presses, injection moulding machines with their dryers and chillers, welding cells, assembly jigs and end of line test rigs. Much of it was bought for one model and has seen limited use, which counts in what it is worth. Moulders and presses have a market across the UK and abroad, and robot cells suit integrators who rebuild them.
The part that needs care is ownership. Customer owned tooling, dies, moulds and gauges stay out of the sale and go back to the vehicle maker or to the next supplier. Equipment on finance stays with the funder until the agreement is settled, so it can only be offered with their agreement. We sort both on the first visit so the catalogue only holds what you can sell.
The same kind of plant is in use all along the A19 corridor, so the trade at Washington, Durham, Gateshead, Peterlee and South Shields is a short run from a viewing day.
Flat roads at Washington make the heavy lifts simple
The Washington estates and Hylton were laid out around articulated traffic, and when we first visit we confirm what the yard gives a low loader and where a crane could stand. A press that took a week to install can come out far quicker where there is room. The A1231 puts the estates minutes from the A1(M), so a buyer's vehicle from the south need not touch the city.
That helps compress the programme. The loose lots usually go first, inside an agreed collection window. The machines on foundations follow in an order agreed with you, lifted by the buyer's rigging crew at the buyer's cost. Taking out the busbar, cable tray, compressed air ring main and any mezzanine, and grinding the fixings flush, can be arranged after that where agreed.
Scrap from a pressings shop is worth weighing in properly. Offcuts, skeleton coil, swarf and worn dies go over the weighbridge and the tickets come back to you.
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 Sunderland
- The car plant still owns our press tooling. How do we keep it out of the sale?
We list it as excluded before the catalogue is written. On the first visit we walk the unit with you and tag every die, mould, fixture and gauge that belongs to the customer, then it is stored to one side or returned before the viewing day. Nothing with a customer asset number goes in the sale. If ownership of an item is unclear, we hold it back rather than sell it, because a dispute after the hammer falls is worse than a smaller catalogue.
- We have robot cells and automation that an integrator installed. Do they sell or are they scrap?
They are worth offering. Used robots suit integrators and dealers, and bidding is online and not limited to the area and Europe. A cell kept together with its controller, teach pendant and guarding is usually worth more as one lot than broken up. We catalogue each cell as a dismantling lot, with the buyer responsible for safe decommissioning and removal, and we keep the drawings and programs with it where you have them. Conveyors and fixtures built for one model sell for less, and some of that goes for weight.
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.