Britannia AuctionsLiquidation and insolvency asset sales in Sheffield
Sheffield's engineering trades leave heavy assets behind when a company fails. A liquidator appointed over a forging or toolmaking firm in Attercliffe or Tinsley will find hammers, presses, machine tools and furnaces that have been in the same building for decades, together with bar stock, forgings, castings and offcuts that are worth money as steel whatever else happens.
We sell those assets on the instruction of the office holder, the lender or the landlord. The first visit produces a schedule with serial numbers and photographs, a written opinion of value, a note of anything bolted to a foundation and a list of items on finance. The sale is an online timed auction in most cases, with bidding online and open to the rest of the country, and Rotherham, Barnsley, Doncaster and Chesterfield well placed to attend the viewing. Use the contact form to describe the appointment and the site.
Machine tools, forgings and the steel left on the floor
Heavy plant in the Lower Don Valley is catalogued on two things: what the machine is, and how it comes out of the building. The vehicle route, the yard and the lifting each item needs are checked on our first visit and recorded in the catalogue. Lathes, borers, grinders and machining centres from a failed toolmaker are lotted individually with photographs of the control, the ways, the tooling and the plate, and the catalogue is open to bidders across the country as well as to the engineering trade in the valley.
Forging hammers and presses are a different case. Some are fixtures or sit on foundations that make removal a serious engineering job. Others are only worth their scrap weight. We give the office holder a straight opinion on each, and where the answer is scrap we say so. Steel stock is sold in two ways. Bar and plate with mill certificates is lotted by grade and size for engineering buyers. Offcuts and swarf go over a weighbridge to a metal merchant, and the ticket is reported with the sale.
Material certificates and inspection equipment from precision shops
The precision end of the city's engineering, and the aerospace and materials firms around the Advanced Manufacturing Park at Waverley, fail with a different kind of asset. Coordinate measuring machines, hardness testers, surface plates and calibrated gauges are assessed on their calibration records, and bar stock on its certificate of conformity. The quality files are company records and belong to the office holder, so we ask for them on day one and photograph the calibration labels on every instrument before anything is moved.
Subcontract machinists and inspection houses, in the valley and at Rotherham and Worksop, are well placed to attend the viewing, and an online auction reaches the rest of the UK at the same time. Where a single item, a large CMM for example, has a narrow market, we will suggest private treaty and approach the likely buyers directly.
What these sales can include
- Machine tools and production lines
- Finished stock and work in progress
- Raw materials and components
- Commercial vehicles and vans
- Plant and site equipment
- Forklift trucks and pallet trucks
- Racking and warehouse fittings
- Office furniture and IT equipment
- Catering and bar equipment
- Fixtures and fittings
- Tooling, spares and consumables
- Shop fittings and displays
How the auction runs
Insolvency assets are usually sold by online timed auction. The catalogue is photographed on site, listed with estimates and opened for bidding for a period agreed with the office holder, usually one to two weeks. A viewing day is held at the premises. Lots are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding.
Buyers pay the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately on the invoice. Payment is taken before collection. Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots during an agreed collection window, using specialist movers where the weight and dimensions call for them. Our staff supervise collection so the premises are protected and every removal is signed off.
Private treaty is used for individual assets where a direct sale may produce more than the auction, subject to the office holder's approval.
The liquidation and insolvency asset sales page covers who instructs the sale, what an insolvency practitioner needs from us, securing the site, timescales, for directors.
Questions about selling in Sheffield
- There is a press bolted to a foundation in Attercliffe. Is it plant or part of the building?
That turns on the lease and on how the press was installed. Our part is to describe the installation accurately, with photographs of the foundation bolts, the pit, the services and the surrounding floor, so the question can be answered. If the press is the company's, we sell it in situ and the buyer removes it at their own cost under a method statement we approve. If it is the landlord's, we leave it out of the sale.
- Is the steel stock worth more as stock or as scrap?
It depends on the certificates. Bar and plate that can be traced to a mill certificate is worth more to an engineering buyer than to a merchant, and we lot it by grade and size to reach those buyers. Material with no paperwork, cut ends, offcuts and swarf go for scrap value. We weigh both routes for the office holder before the catalogue is drafted, and the scrap ticket from the weighbridge is included in the sale report.
More questions about insolvency asset sales
Related services
Guides
- What insolvency practitioners need from an auctioneer
For office holders realising physical assets. Covers the instruction letter, the asset schedule and valuation basis, retention of title, finance checks, site security, health and safety during the sale, and the reconciliation you need for the file.