Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Leicester
The sheds along the M1 and M69 south of Leicester did not build themselves. Groundworks contractors and plant hire yards have grown with them, and when a contract finishes at Enderby or Lutterworth the plant comes back to a yard that is already full.
We sell that plant by online timed auction. Excavators, dumpers, telehandlers, rollers and the compressors and small tools that go with them. The sale can run from your yard on Meridian Business Park or Troon Industrial Estate, or from the site where the machines last worked, and we photograph and describe each lot with the hour reading from the meter and the serial number from the plate.
Tell us what you have through the contact form. A single mini digger is a lot. A whole hire fleet is a catalogue.
Where the plant sits and how it gets out
Most plant in the area is on the outer estates, where Braunstone Frith and the parks near junction 21 have the yard space, and the first job is still to look at it: the gate, the turning space, the hard standing, the loading point and the road outside.
The harder case is a builder's yard or a small groundworks firm tucked behind the older streets in the east or west of the city, where the textile workshops are. Roads are narrow, parking is on the street, and loading a 20 tonne excavator at the kerb needs a plan rather than an assumption. Where that is the situation we look at moving the machines to a compound with hard standing before the sale, or at a collection slot early in the morning with the road clear. What is agreed goes in the catalogue, so nobody turns up with a lorry that will not fit.
Reach into the county and what sets the price
A Leicester catalogue is within easy reach of the county trade. Hinckley and Coalville, the hire yards at Loughborough and Market Harborough, and the smaller builders at Wigston and Oadby are all close enough to come to a viewing day. Beyond them, bidding runs online and is open to bidders well beyond the area, which takes the same lots much further than the county.
That matters for reserves. A telehandler with a current LOLER certificate and sensible hours has more than one kind of buyer, and the reserve is set with that in mind. An older excavator with a tired undercarriage is a different lot, and what it makes depends on its condition, its specification, how it is lotted and what it costs to move it out. We tell you what interest to expect before you settle a reserve.
Timing is the other lever. Contractors buy plant when they have work coming, so the date is worth discussing before the catalogue is written rather than after.
What these sales can include
- Excavators and mini diggers
- Dumpers and site dumpers
- Telehandlers
- Generators and lighting towers
- Compressors and breakers
- Rollers and compaction equipment
- Site cabins and welfare units
- Scaffolding and access equipment
- Concrete mixers and pumps
- Buckets, quick hitches and attachments
- Plant trailers
- Surveying equipment and small tools
- Fuel bowsers and tanks
How the auction works
Each machine is a lot with a full description, photographs and the hour reading. Bidding runs online for a set period, usually one to two weeks, and lots close in sequence. A bid in the last minutes extends the close for that lot.
Plant is offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding. The buyer pays the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately on the invoice. Payment is required before removal.
Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots within the agreed window. What that takes depends on the machine: wheeled plant with road registration can be driven away, and tracked or heavy machines go on a low loader. Nothing leaves the site until it is paid for and signed out.
The plant and construction equipment auctions page covers what buyers want to know, finance and ownership checks, where the sale runs from, reserves and the market, alternatives.
Questions about selling in Leicester
- Can you sell plant from a yard on one of the inner city streets?
Yes, but we need to see the access first. If a low loader can get to the gate and there is room to load, we sell in place and give buyers a fixed collection slot. If the street is too tight, we move the machines to hard standing before the sale. Either way we say in the catalogue how collection will work, so buyers bid knowing what they are taking on.
- Our hire fleet is spread across sites between Leicester and Lutterworth. Can it be one sale?
It can. We catalogue each machine where it stands, with the site name and the hour reading, and sell the lot in a single online auction. Buyers see one catalogue and bid across it. Collection is then arranged per site, with a contact and a window for each. A few machines that are hard to reach can be moved to your main yard beforehand if that is simpler.
More questions about plant and construction
Related services
Guides
- 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.
- Selling a commercial vehicle fleet
Fleet sales turn on paperwork as much as on price. This guide covers the V5C, MOT and plating documents, clearing finance before listing, keys and livery, recording mileage and tachograph data, and how to defleet in batches while still trading.