Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Warrington
Warrington's engineering is built around the plants it serves. The chemical works at Bank Quay, the nuclear and energy firms on Birchwood Park, the distribution sheds at Omega and the trailer and vehicle services trade all rely on fabrication shops that can weld to a code and roll plate. Those shops sit on Woolston Grange, Appleton Thorn and the older estates near the Ship Canal, and when one closes the plant inside it suits the next contractor.
That is the trade we advertise to first. Fabricators in Widnes, Runcorn, St Helens and Wigan are within easy reach of a viewing day from either motorway, and positioners, welding sets, plate rolls and pillar drills suit a shop with work waiting. The bigger machine tools go to a national trade online.
Any job, from one welding bay to a whole shop. Tell us what you have through the contact form.
Coded welding bays and the plant that proves the work
A fabrication shop that works for the chemical and nuclear sector is set up differently from a jobbing welder. The welding sets are bigger and there are positioners and manipulators to turn heavy work. Next to them is the equipment that proves the weld. Preheat and post weld heat treatment kit, hardness testers, dye penetrant and the records that go with them.
That proving equipment has its own market, and the records matter to what the welding plant makes. A set with a calibration certificate and a service history can go straight into a coded shop. One without suits a general fabricator, and the bidding follows that. We catalogue the certificates with the machine and list the consumables that go with each set.
Plate rolls, section benders, guillotines and press brakes follow the same rule. A machine with its tooling, its guards, its manual and its last service record is a working machine to a buyer. One stripped of them is a project, and it is bid on as one.
An administrator's timetable on a fabrication shop
Where a shop is sold for an administrator or a liquidator, the timetable is set by the landlord as much as by the appointment. The landlord wants the unit back and the insolvency practitioner wants the assets turned into money before the costs eat them. Speed matters, but so does a defensible price.
An auction answers both. The catalogue is published quickly and the sale runs online for a week or two with a viewing day. The practitioner gets a public record of what each lot fetched. We take instructions from the practitioner and deal with the landlord over access and collection.
Hired plant is the usual complication. Welding sets, compressors, forklifts and site cabins on hire agreements go back to the hirer, not into the sale, and we sort out which is which when we walk the site.
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 Warrington
- The company is in administration and the landlord wants the unit at Appleton Thorn back within six weeks. Is that possible?
Usually, yes, if we are instructed straight away, though it depends on the lots and the access. A machinery sale needs about two weeks to catalogue and photograph, then a week or two of online bidding with the viewing inside it, and collection days after that. What slows it is finance, because an item on finance, hire purchase or lease belongs to the funder until it is settled and can only be sold with their agreement, and hire plant has to be identified and returned. We ask for the asset register and the finance schedule on day one for that reason.
- Is a sale like this all dealers, or do the contractors and fabricators bid too?
The catalogue goes to both. Dealers work the machine tools and the general fabrication plant, and end users bid on what they can put to work, which is often the welding plant and the proving equipment. Which of them bids hardest on a lot depends on its condition, its certification and what a replacement would cost. That is why we advertise to the trade directly as well as to the dealers, and why the viewing day is in the shop rather than in a yard somewhere else.
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.