Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Manchester
Trafford Park is where a lot of Manchester plant ends up between jobs. Contractors keep compounds there because the M60 is minutes away, and a compound with hard standing and a wide gate is a straightforward place to run a plant sale from, with viewing and collection in the same visit.
The plant itself comes from all over the conurbation. Groundworks and civils firms working on the distribution sheds along the M62 towards Rochdale, demolition contractors in the east of the city at Openshaw and Newton Heath, the waste and recycling operators who run loading shovels and screeners as part of the day job, and the plant hire yards that serve all of them. When a contract ends or a firm winds down, we catalogue what is there and sell it by online timed auction.
Start with the contact form. Tell us what you have and where it is.
Compound sales and the orbital motorway
A compound sale runs simply where the access allows it, and on Trafford Park that is usually the case, though the gate, the turning space and the hard standing are still checked before anything is listed. We catalogue on site, hold a viewing day where the machines that can safely be run are started and the hour meters can be checked, then set collection days after the auction closes, one lorry loading at a time.
Older sites in the east can be a different job. Some of the yards around Openshaw were laid out for a different era, and where a low loader has to reverse in from the street we agree what that means machine by machine, including moving the bigger excavators to a compound before the catalogue opens.
Every lot carries a collection note, so buyers bid knowing how the machine gets out.
Hire fleets that come off contract together
Plant hire is a big part of the Manchester market, and hire fleets are where the volume comes from. A hire company that has lost a major customer, or is thinning an ageing fleet, may have twenty dumpers and a dozen mini diggers to deal with at once. Auction suits that. The whole fleet goes in one catalogue where buyers can compare like with like, and the yard is empty on a known date.
The trade is close at hand. Salford, Stockport, Bolton and Oldham are well placed for the viewing day, and Wigan and Warrington are along the M62 and the M6. Bidding is online and open to buyers from any part of the country.
One catalogue also puts the fleet in front of the market once, on a date you can plan around, rather than spreading it over months of private deals.
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 Manchester
- We have loading shovels and a screener at a recycling yard. Do they sell in a plant auction?
They do. Loading shovels, screeners and crushers are catalogued with the hour reading and photographs of the wear parts, and they are described for the work they do rather than lumped in with the diggers. Online bidding opens the sale to the rest of the country. We set a collection slot to suit the vehicle a machine of that weight needs, and if the yard is still operating we work around it.
- How long from first call to the money being in our account?
Six to eight weeks is a reasonable plan for a compound sale on Trafford Park, and it turns on the number of lots, the access and how quickly buyers pay. A week or two to catalogue and photograph, one to two weeks of bidding, then collection days and cleared funds from buyers. We account to you once the sale is reconciled. If a lease end or a handover fixes the date, tell us at the start.
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.