Britannia AuctionsFactory and workshop clearance in Swindon
When an estate is being redeveloped, the developer's programme is the deadline, and it does not move for a late lorry. That is the situation around South Marston, where the old car plant site is turning into logistics and manufacturing space and the supplier units on the surrounding estate are coming to the end of their leases one by one. A clearance there has a fixed date with a demolition contractor waiting behind it.
The plant in those units is heavy: presses, weld cells, conveyors, robots, test rigs and the tooling that fed the line. Elsewhere in the town the work is lighter. Pharmaceutical and electronics firms on the north and east sides leave packing lines, clean rooms, test benches and stores. Print works leave presses and finishing kit. The older estates, Cheney Manor, Groundwell, Kembrey Park and Dorcan, hold vehicle repair shops and light engineering.
We sell everything with a value in one timed online auction, and a strip out to the date can be arranged where agreed.
Presses and weld cells when the developer is waiting
Automotive supply plant has a wide market and a slow removal. Power presses, robot weld cells, conveyors and assembly rigs suit other component makers and dealers who export, and bidding is online because the buyer for a particular press is rarely in Wiltshire. A press on foundations needs a crane and a rigging crew. A weld cell comes out in sections with its guarding. Both need site time booked after the loose lots have gone.
Where the estate is being redeveloped, the strip out standard can be different. A landlord who intends to demolish may not want the floor made good, in which case the plan is to get the saleable plant out and the residue weighed in. What is required is confirmed in writing before anything is priced.
The trade at Chippenham, Cirencester, Wantage and Marlborough is well placed to attend the viewing for the smaller lots, and junction 15 or 16 of the M4 keeps the run in short for a low loader.
Packing lines that sell with their paperwork
Pharmaceutical plant is a different sale. Blister packers, cartoners, labellers, checkweighers, tablet presses and the clean room they sat in have a market among contract packers and manufacturers across the UK and abroad, and the documents count for as much as the machine: the validation file, the maintenance log, the change parts list and the cleaning records. Paperwork is part of what a bidder is judging, so it is worth the time it takes to find it before the catalogue is written.
The clean room itself is partitioning, filtered ceilings, lighting and a raised floor, and it sells as a dismantling lot if a buyer wants it or comes down with the strip out if not.
Print works on the same side of town leave sheet fed presses, guillotines, folders and finishing lines. The presses are rigging jobs, so their removal is booked into the days between the loose lots and the strip out.
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 Swindon
- Our unit is on the estate at South Marston and the landlord wants it back for redevelopment. Does the strip out still have to be to the schedule?
Ask the landlord in writing before anything is priced. Where demolition is planned, the making good is sometimes waived, because there is little point grinding bolts flush on a floor that is coming up. Some landlords still ask for the unit to be left safe, with services capped and hazardous materials removed. We get that scope in writing at the start, price the strip out against it and leave out anything the landlord does not want done.
- We have a sheet fed press on the first floor of an older unit at Cheney Manor. Can it be sold?
Yes, though it is a rigging job before it is a sale. A press on an upper floor comes out in sections through a window or a goods door with a crane, and the buyer's rigging crew does it at the buyer's cost. We catalogue it that way, with the weight, the access and the floor loading stated, so the dealers who bid know what they are taking on. If the auction closes without a bid we offer it by private treaty.
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.