Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Sheffield
Sheffield is known for steel, but the plant that goes through our sales here is construction kit. The steel and engineering firms of the Lower Don Valley own more of it than people expect: telehandlers for moving stock, forklifts, generators, compressors and the odd excavator kept for yard work. Add the groundworks and demolition contractors who work on the Parkway estates and the Advanced Manufacturing Park at Waverley, and there is a steady flow of machines to sell.
We run those sales as online timed auctions. Plant can be sold from a yard in Attercliffe or Tinsley where it stands, or moved to our own premises when the site has to be handed back quickly. Each machine is described with its hours, its year, its serial number and any certificates, and buyers bid from anywhere in the UK.
The contact form is the start. A description and a rough location is enough for a first conversation.
Low loaders in and out of Attercliffe
The Don Valley estates were built for heavy loads. Presses and machine tools have moved in and out of Attercliffe and Darnall for a century, so the roads and the gates were sized for that traffic. For a plant sale it still comes down to the checks: the gate, the turning space, the hard standing and where a 20 tonne excavator can be loaded. From most of those yards the Parkway is minutes away and the M1 at junction 33 shortly after.
Holbrook to the south east and the Parkway Industrial Estate are looked at the same way. Where we slow down is on the smaller engineering sites off the main roads, where a telehandler may be parked in a corner the yard has grown around, and the collection arrangement for a machine like that is agreed before the catalogue is written.
Lots are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding.
Reach along the M1 and the viewing day
The M1 brings the trade within reach. Rotherham is next door, and Barnsley, Doncaster, Chesterfield and Worksop are a short run up or down the motorway, with Dronfield across country. The auction is online and not limited to the area, so a catalogue is not limited to the people who can drive to it.
Viewing day is worth making the most of. A telehandler that starts and lifts to full height in front of a buyer gives a bidder more to go on than a description alone, so we hold the viewing at the yard where the plant is, with someone on site who knows the machines, and the ones that can be run without risk are started.
Reserves are agreed before the sale opens. We give an estimate for each machine and tell you plainly if we think a reserve is set too high for what the machine is.
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 Sheffield
- Our yard plant is mixed in with the machine tools. Can one sale cover both?
Yes. A site clearance in Sheffield often has a press brake and a telehandler in the same building, and we catalogue them together. The plant is described with its hours and certificates, the machine tools with their capacities and serial numbers, and both sit in the same auction. Where a machine tool needs a rigging contractor to get out, which the buyer arranges and pays for, we say so in the catalogue and set a longer collection window for it.
- What do you need from us before the catalogue can go live?
For each machine, the model, the year of manufacture, the hour reading and the serial number from the plate. Any service history and any current inspection certificate. Confirmation of whether the machine is on finance, and if so, who with. Photographs help but we take our own. We also need the date the yard has to be clear by, because that sets the sale date and everything else follows from it.
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.