Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Telford
Lorries were designed into Telford before the first factory opened, and that shows on collection day. The estate roads at Hortonwood and Halesfield are wide and the units have yards, with the M54 a few minutes from any of them, although the gate, the turning space and the loading point are still checked yard by yard before anything is listed.
The plant we sell here comes from two places. Factory yards on the main estates keep telehandlers, compressors, generators and access platforms for their own use, and those are sold when a plant closes or moves. Contractors who build and extend those factories keep the excavators, dumpers, rollers and cabins in compounds around the town, and those are sold when the job ends or the firm winds down.
Both sell by online timed auction, from the yard or from our own premises. Use the contact form to tell us what you have.
Compressors and generators from the factory yards
A factory on Stafford Park that is closing sells its machinery in one sale, but the yard plant is often overlooked until the last week. A telehandler used for unloading, a diesel generator for the standby supply, a couple of compressors and a scissor lift for maintenance. None of it is production equipment and all of it has a market.
We list yard plant as separate lots in the same sale as the machinery, so one viewing day covers both, or we take it into a plant sale with other contractors' lots where that suits better. Each item is listed with hours, serial number, year and the last inspection certificate. Plant from a factory yard often carries low hours and a service contract behind it, and where the meter and the records show that, the catalogue says so.
Where a lease has a fixed end date, the sale is planned to close before the keys go back.
Numbered phases and booked collection slots
Each of the main estates is divided into numbered phases, and a buyer collecting from a numbered phase at Halesfield finds it as easily as a postcode. We give the phase and unit in the catalogue for every lot. Collection is by booked slot in the days after the close. The buyer pays us, arrives with the right lorry and loads under supervision, with a release note for the yard.
Where the access allows it, and on these estates it often does, the sale runs in place. The viewing day is at the yard, buyers can check tracks and hydraulics, and the machines that can be run without risk are started.
Shrewsbury and Newport are close, Wolverhampton is down the M54, Shifnal is up the road, and Bridgnorth, Market Drayton and Stafford are well placed for the viewing day. The auction is online and not limited to the area.
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 Telford
- Our moulding factory on Hortonwood closes at the end of the lease. Can the yard plant sell with the machinery or does it need a separate sale?
It can sell in the same sale. We catalogue the telehandler, generators, compressors and the scissor lift as their own lots alongside the moulding machines, so one viewing day and one collection window covers everything before the lease ends. Plant buyers and machinery buyers are different people, but both bid online in the same catalogue. If the yard plant is all you are selling, it goes into a plant sale with other lots so it is not on its own.
- Is there a market for site cabins and welfare units from a factory extension?
Yes. Contractors starting a job need them, and a dry cabin with a working toilet and a generator is a lot in its own right. Collection usually takes a crane lorry or a plant trailer, which the buyer arranges and pays for, so we state the size and weight in the catalogue. Units in poor condition are described as they are and priced accordingly. Photographs of the inside do most of the work, so we take plenty.
More questions about plant and construction
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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.