Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Coventry
When a vehicle programme ends, the tooling shops that fed it feel it first. Coventry's smaller estates, Binley and Bayton Road at Exhall among them, are full of subcontract machinists, toolmakers, fabricators and finishers whose work follows the model cycles of the car plants, and whose machines come onto the market when a contract finishes or a supplier consolidates.
The shift to electric vehicles and batteries is changing the mix. Some shops are retooling for new work and selling what they no longer need. Others are closing. Plant that has supplied the vehicle trade has usually been kept to a standard, though we judge condition machine by machine.
We catalogue on site, list every machine with the specification buyers need, run the sale online for a week or two and manage collection on fixed days. The sale is online and open to buyers anywhere in the UK, and the trade in Nuneaton, Rugby, Leamington and Warwick is close enough to walk the lots on the viewing day. Tell us what you have through the contact form.
Toolroom kit that follows the model cycle
A Coventry tool shop sale usually has a particular shape. Wire and sinker EDM machines, jig grinders, a high speed machining centre or two for electrodes and die blocks, surface grinders, a coordinate measuring machine and a great deal of tooling and workholding. Where it has been kept well it is worth cataloguing in detail.
EDM machines suit other toolmakers, and the questions are about the generator, the axis travels, the filtration and how many hours are on the machine. Machining centres are judged on control system, spindle speed, axis travels and the tooling package. We list all of it and photograph the control screens and nameplates. If you have the service history, it goes in the catalogue too.
Toolroom kit has a national market. A jig grinder does not come up often, and because bidding is online a shop in Scotland or on the south coast bids on the same terms as one in Warwick.
Timing a sale around a contract ending
Supply contracts end on a date, and that date is the anchor for the sale. We would usually catalogue while the machines are still running, so that those which can safely be run stay connected for the viewing day and can be demonstrated by your staff where you agree to it. Bidding then closes after the last parts ship, with collection after that, and the dates depend on how many lots there are and the access.
If the customer's tooling is still in the building, that has to go back first, and we keep it well away from the auction lots. Customer owned fixtures and dies are a common cause of confusion in a tooling shop sale, so we tag what stays and what goes when we first visit.
Access is checked on the first visit. Binley and Bayton Road are estate units close to the M6 at junction 2 and the A45, and we measure the doors, the turning space and the loading point so the catalogue tells a buyer what their mover will find.
What these sales can include
- CNC turning centres
- CNC vertical and horizontal machining centres
- Manual and toolroom lathes
- Milling machines
- Surface and cylindrical grinders
- Press brakes and guillotines
- Laser, plasma and waterjet cutters
- Bandsaws and cold saws
- Radial arm and pillar drills
- Welding sets and positioners
- Coordinate measuring machines
- Tooling, chucks and workholding
- Compressors and dust extraction
- Cranes, hoists and forklifts
Viewing, bidding and the buyer's premium
Machinery sales run as online timed auctions. The catalogue is published with photographs and specifications. Buyers register, view the machines on the viewing day, and bid online until the lots close. The sale is advertised to the engineering trade, and bidding is online and open to buyers across the UK and beyond.
The buyer pays the hammer price plus the buyer's premium. VAT is charged where it applies and shown separately on the buyer's invoice. Ask and we will go through the specifics for your sale. Where a buyer is overseas, they arrange their own export.
Machines are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding, which is why the viewing day matters. Machines that can be run safely stay connected for the viewing day so your staff can demonstrate them where that is agreed, and everything else is isolated and left safe.
The machinery and engineering auctions page covers what the buyers want to know, what affects demand, reserves and estimates, removal and access, when a private sale beats an auction.
Questions about selling in Coventry
- The car plant owns some of the fixtures and gauges in our shop. How do you keep them out of the sale?
We walk the shop with you before cataloguing and tag every item that belongs to a customer. Those items are not lotted or shown on the viewing day, and we suggest they go back to the customer before the sale opens if that is possible. Anything on hire or on finance is treated the same way, because it remains the funder's property until it is settled and can only be sold with their agreement. It takes an hour during our first visit and saves a great deal of trouble later.
- We are switching to battery work and want to sell the old line but keep the building. Can you sell around us?
Yes. A partial clearance is common in the vehicle supply chain now. We catalogue only the machines you are releasing and mark the rest clearly so nobody bids on the wrong lathe. The viewing day is run in the part of the shop that is being sold, and the collection order is agreed with you so the movers cross your working area as little as possible. The rest of the business carries on while the sale runs.
More questions about machinery auctions
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.
- How used machinery is valued
Buyers pay for what a machine will do for them, less what it costs to get it out and running. This guide explains how make, hours, tooling, demand and removal cost feed a guide price, and why that price is not book value.