Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Swindon
When a redevelopment phase finishes, the compound is full of plant with nowhere to go next. The former car plant site at South Marston is being rebuilt for logistics and manufacturing, and the sheds at Symmetry Park near junction 16 went up the same way. Each phase leaves a groundworks contractor with excavators, rollers, dumpers and a row of cabins that have finished the job they were bought for.
We sell that plant by online timed auction, from the compound while it is still open or from our own premises once the site has been handed over. The same goes for the smaller yards on Cheney Manor and Dorcan, and for anyone retiring and selling the equipment rather than transferring the business.
Swindon's estates were laid out with lorries in mind, and we still check the gate, the turning space and the loading point before anything is listed. The contact form is the first step. A list of machines and a location is enough for a first look.
Phases that finish and compounds that empty
A big site sheds plant in stages. The earthworks fleet finishes first and sits idle while the frames go up. Piling rigs and the heavier excavators follow. By the time the cladding is on, the compound holds telehandlers, generators, welfare units and small tools, and the dozers have been parked for months.
Our advice is to sell in phases that follow the programme. An earthworks sale when the earthworks finish, and a second sale of the site plant at handover. Two sales cost little more than one and each machine is offered when it has stopped earning. Reserves are agreed for each sale on its own.
Where the compounds at South Marston and Symmetry Park have the hard standing and the gates for it, both sales can run in place, with a viewing day on site and collection in booked slots after the close. That is settled when we visit.
Reach along the A419 and the M4
Swindon sits between two markets. Cirencester and the towns up the A419 towards the M5 are one direction, Chippenham and Marlborough the other. Along the M4, firms either side are under an hour away, Faringdon and Wantage come in on the A420, and Royal Wootton Bassett and Highworth are on the doorstep. All of that is close enough to inspect the lots before the sale closes, where a compound can be walked properly.
Beyond it, bids are placed online and the sale is open to bidders well beyond the area, which puts the older machines and anything with high hours in front of dealers as well as the local trade.
Every lot is listed with the hour reading from the meter and the serial number from the plate, and the machines that can safely be run are started on video, so a bidder at the other end of the country has the same information as one from Calne.
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 Swindon
- The compound at South Marston has to be cleared by a fixed handover date. What happens if bidding is still running?
The sale is timed to close a week or more before the handover, with collection in the days between, and that timetable depends on how many lots there are, the access and the date itself. If the handover is too close for it, we can move the plant to our own premises first and the sale runs from there on its own timetable. Buyers pay before they collect, and every lot leaves with a release note so the site manager knows what has gone.
- We are a pharmaceutical firm's facilities team with a scissor lift and a standby generator to dispose of. Is that a plant sale?
Yes. Access platforms and generators from a factory or a laboratory campus are catalogued with the inspection certificate and the hour reading, and where service records come with them they go in the lot as well, because a bidder prices on the evidence. Two items would be added to a plant sale with other sellers' lots so they sit in a full catalogue. Collection is by booked slot with a release note, so your site security knows who is coming and when.
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.