Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Liverpool
Liverpool's engineering follows the port and the car plants. Around Speke and Halewood are the automotive suppliers, with machining and pressings kit in units near the plants they feed. Along the docks at Bootle and Seaforth, and on Knowsley Industrial Park, are the workshops that keep freight handling plant and haulage fleets running. Pharmaceutical plants at Speke have engineering departments of their own.
Machinery auctions here are rarely a textbook machine shop. More often it is a maintenance workshop inside a bigger operation, a fabricator serving the port, a haulier's own workshop or a component maker whose contract has ended. The kit is machine tools, welding plant, cranes and compressors in a mix that depends on the business.
We catalogue on site, list every machine with the detail buyers need, run the sale online for a week or two with a viewing day at the unit, and manage collection. Tell us what you have through the contact form.
Workshops that keep the port and the plants running
A maintenance workshop sells on the same detail as a production shop, so we treat it the same way. The lathe, the mill, the radial drill, the bandsaw, the welding sets and the overhead crane are each catalogued with make, model, serial number and capacity, and the tooling is lotted by type in trays. What is different is the buyer. A haulier or a fabricator running a repair shop wants a solid manual machine, and completeness with its tooling is part of what decides the price. Widnes, Birkenhead and the rest of the trade around the city are close enough to attend a viewing day.
Automotive suppliers around Halewood and Speke are the other source. When a component contract ends, the machining centres and presses that ran it come to market in good order, and those are catalogued for dealers and end users across the UK.
Estimates are given for the main machines before the sale. Reserves can be set on those, and the smaller lots sell without.
Collection from the outer estates and the dockside
Knowsley Industrial Park, the Liverpool International Business Park at Speke and Estuary Commerce Park are estate sites close to the M57 and M62. We check the doors, the yard and the loading point at each one before the catalogue is written, and where a site allows it the heavy and light lots can share the same collection days.
The older dockside roads at Bootle and Seaforth are tighter. Units can be behind narrow gates or inside a bonded area with its own security, and a machine coming out may need a smaller rigid lorry or a Hiab rather than an articulated low loader. We check the route when we first visit and agree any site rules with the operator. Both go in the catalogue.
Buyers book and pay for the removal of their lots, including specialist movers for the heavier plant. We agree the collection window and the order with you, attend, and release lots against paid invoices. Birkenhead and the Wirral are a tunnel away for the smaller lots.
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 Liverpool
- Our workshop is inside a bonded warehouse near the docks. Can buyers get in for a viewing?
Yes, by appointment. On a controlled site the viewing runs as booked slots rather than an open day, with buyers signed in and escorted by us or the site operator. Collection works the same way, with riggers booked into times the operator agrees. The rules go in the catalogue so nobody turns up unannounced. It adds some administration, and buyers know what to expect before they bid.
- The car plant contract finished and we have a line of machining centres standing idle. Auction or private sale?
Possibly both. A line of late model machining centres with a common control is worth showing to dealers and end users by private treaty first, because a negotiated sale of the whole line can bring a good price and a quick result. If that does not come together, or if there is a fixed date to work to, the auction route puts the machines in front of the widest market on a certain timetable. We will look at them and give you a view on which is likely to do better.
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.