Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Leicester
Leicester's engineering is mostly small. A city built on textiles, food, plastics and printing has hundreds of general engineering shops that machine parts for those trades, and most of them run a mix of manual and CNC kit in a unit on Braunstone Frith, Troon Industrial Estate or one of the older streets near the centre.
When one of those shops closes, or the owner retires and sells the equipment rather than transferring the business, the machines still have a market. A turret mill or a toolroom lathe in good order suits another small shop, and a CNC turning centre with a common control is catalogued for buyers across the UK.
We come to the unit, catalogue every machine with the detail buyers need, and run the sale as an online timed auction with a viewing day at the premises. Tell us what you have through the contact form and we will give you a view on what it is likely to make.
Small shops with a lot of kit for their size
The typical Leicester sale is a unit of a few thousand square feet with more machines in it than you would expect. Mills, lathes, a surface grinder, a bandsaw, a pillar drill or two, a compressor and a welding set, plus benches full of chucks, collets, gauges and measuring kit. None of it is large on its own, but together it is a full day of cataloguing.
We photograph and list every machine with make, model, serial number and the tooling that goes with it. Tooling does better when it is lotted sensibly, so we keep chucks and holders with the machine they fit and sell loose tooling in trays.
The trade in Loughborough, Hinckley, Coalville and Wigston is close enough to attend a viewing day, and the online catalogue puts the same lots in front of engineering buyers across the UK. A sale like this usually runs for about two weeks, with the viewing day inside it.
Getting machines out of an inner city street
Access is the part of a Leicester sale that needs thought, and it is settled by looking rather than by the postcode. The outer estates near junction 21 are one kind of site. The older textile streets east and west of the centre are another, with terraced frontages, on street parking and a shutter straight onto the pavement. What a mover needs there depends on the machine, its dimensions and the route out.
We look at this when we first visit. Where a machine is upstairs or behind a narrow door, we say so in the catalogue, so buyers price the removal in and nobody is surprised on collection day. Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots. We agree the collection window and the order with you, attend, and let lots go only when they have been paid for.
If access is bad enough, we can collect the smaller machines ourselves and sell them from our own premises.
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 Leicester
- Our unit is on a residential street in the east of the city. Will that put buyers off?
It changes how the sale is run rather than whether it runs. We note the access in the catalogue and in the viewing notes, so buyers can plan the removal before they bid. What a machine needs on the way out depends on its weight, its dimensions and the route, and a parking suspension is one of the things a buyer's mover may have to arrange. Removal cost is part of every bid, which is why the catalogue has to be accurate about it.
- The lease on our unit at Beaumont Leys ends in eight weeks. Is that enough time?
Probably, if we start now. A machinery sale needs about a week to catalogue, a week or two of bidding and a collection window after it closes, and the shape depends on the lots and the access. That normally fits inside eight weeks with room to sweep the floor before the keys go back. Tell us the date on the contact form and we will work the timetable back from it. If the landlord wants the unit clear earlier, we can move the machines to our own premises and sell from there.
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.