Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Nottingham
Engineering in Nottingham is spread thin rather than concentrated. Lenton Lane along the ring road, Colwick out by the Trent, Beeston to the south west and the Blenheim estate at Bulwell each have a handful of machine shops, fabricators, sheet metal firms and maintenance workshops, and the pharmaceutical and food plants keep engineering departments of their own.
For a machinery auction that means the sale is usually one firm, not a district. A subcontract machine shop closing at Colwick, a toolroom being cleared at Beeston, a press brake surplus after a plant upgrade, a single CNC lathe that no longer earns its keep. We treat each on its own merits and we do not need a big site to make a sale worthwhile.
Bidding runs online and is open to the whole of the UK, and the engineering trade in Derby, Long Eaton, Mansfield and Newark is well placed to come and look before bidding closes. Tell us what you have through the contact form.
One machine or a whole shop, both get the same catalogue
The smallest job we take on is a single machine. A CNC lathe that is surplus after a contract ended, or a lathe and a mill from a retiring one man shop. Each is catalogued the same way as a machine in a fifty lot sale, with make, model, serial number, control, capacity and tooling, and photographed properly.
For a single late model CNC we may suggest private treaty instead of auction. A known machine with a common control system has a ready market among dealers and end users, and a negotiated sale can be quicker. We put that option to you rather than deciding for you.
For a whole shop the auction route usually suits better. Everything sits on one catalogue, and one viewing day at the unit covers all of it. The sale closes on a fixed date you can plan around, and collection follows in the days after.
Getting round the ring road with a low loader
Collection from Nottingham's estates turns on the unit rather than the road network. The A52 ring road links Lenton Lane to the M1 at junction 25, Colwick sits off the eastern side and Blenheim at Bulwell is close to junction 26, and we check the door, the yard and the loading point at each site.
The exceptions are older units in Lenton with shared yards, and any workshop inside a larger plant where the route out crosses a production area. In the second case we plan collection around the plant's own operations, and the catalogue tells buyers which days and hours apply.
Buyers arrange and cover the cost of the removal of their lots. We agree the collection window and the order with you, attend, and release lots once their invoices are paid. Smaller lots and tooling go out by van, and a buyer who has bought a tray of tooling does not need to wait for the rigger.
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 Nottingham
- Our machine shop is inside a pharmaceutical site at Beeston with security and clean area rules. Can you still run a viewing?
Yes, with some planning. Viewings on a controlled site are usually by appointment in a fixed window rather than an open day, and buyers are signed in and escorted. We agree the rules with the site manager before the catalogue goes out and print them in the viewing notes. Collection is handled the same way, with riggers booked into slots. It slows the day down a little, and setting the rules out in the catalogue means buyers know what to expect before they bid.
- We are relocating to Fairham Business Park and only want to sell what will not fit. Do you handle a partial clearance?
Yes. A relocation sale is often the best kind, because the machines being sold are the ones you have chosen to leave behind rather than everything at once. We catalogue those lots only and run the sale while you carry on working around them. Collection is timed so the old unit empties on the day you need. If some machines are going to the new site, we keep them out of the catalogue and out of the viewing so nobody bids on the wrong lathe.
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.