Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Southampton
Marine engineering keeps a particular kind of workshop. Long bed lathes for shafts, horizontal borers, big radial drills, welding sets and positioners, and a crane over the bay, because everything that comes off a ship or a boat is heavy and awkward. Those shops sit along the Itchen and Southampton Water, and their plant is what a machinery sale here is usually about.
Behind them is a second tier. The marine and aerospace suppliers on Solent Industrial Estate at Hedge End and along the Eastleigh corridor run CNC turning and machining centres, grinders and inspection equipment with a national market.
We catalogue both on site, with the specification and photographs that let a buyer decide whether to travel, and run the sale online over a week or two. Tell us what you have through the contact form.
Long bed lathes and the marine trade
A marine engineer's lathe is often a very large machine, and that limits who can use it. A four metre bed with a large swing suits shaft work and the heavier end of general engineering, and the possible buyers are few. Some are on the south coast, and export interest is possible. So we describe capacity in numbers, not words. Swing, distance between centres, bore through the spindle, the steadies and faceplates included and the condition of the bed.
Welding plant and positioners suit a wider trade. Fabricators in Totton, Fareham and Eastleigh are a short trip from the viewing day, and so are the cranes, compressors, radial drills and bandsaws that most fabrication shops can use.
The big lathe is the lot to think hardest about. If it is late model and in good order, a private treaty sale to a dealer can beat the auction, and we will give you a view before you commit.
Yards on the Itchen and units off the M27
Access on the water is the problem to solve first. Yards along the Itchen were laid out for boats, not lorries. The road in may be single track, the yard may be shared with a boatbuilder who is still working, and the machine may be in a shed whose door was built for a launch trolley. We survey the site before the catalogue goes out and tell buyers exactly what their rigger will find, so the collection day has no surprises.
Units at Hedge End and along the Eastleigh corridor are newer, with the M27 close by, and they are measured in the same way, because the door, the floor and the loading point decide the removal.
The trade in Portsmouth, Fareham, Winchester and Romsey is a short trip from the viewing day, and the online sale reaches the rest of the country. A boatyard's spring is its busy time, so if you plan to close after the launch season, a sale in early summer with collection before the autumn lay up is worth considering.
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 Southampton
- Our shop is a marine engineer's with a big lathe and a line borer. Is there really a buyer for those?
There are buyers, but not many, and they are spread out. Large capacity lathes and line boring equipment suit other marine engineers, heavy fabrication shops and repair yards, with export interest possible. That is why the sale runs online and why those lots are advertised to that trade directly rather than left to the viewing day. Reserves are available on the main machines, and we give you an estimate first. Completeness matters, so the steadies and tooling are catalogued with the machine.
- We do winter refits and the shop is full until April. When should the sale run?
After the refit work, and before the yard empties of the staff who know the machines. A sale that opens in late spring, with a viewing day when the last boat has gone back in the water and collection in early summer, keeps your customers' work out of the way. We can catalogue while the shop is still busy, machine by machine, and hold the catalogue until you say go. Tell us the date the lease or the yard agreement ends and we will work back from it.
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.