Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Warrington
A plant catalogue put together in Warrington sits at a motorway crossing. Wigan, Widnes, St Helens and Northwich are about twenty minutes from a yard at Winwick Quay or Appleton Thorn, and Liverpool and Manchester are under an hour along the M62, so a good deal of trade is close enough to inspect the lots before the sale closes.
The plant comes from the town's own building programme and from contractors who work the regulated sites. The warehouses at Omega and around Gemini were built by groundworks and civils firms whose compounds still hold excavators, rollers, dumpers and telehandlers. The engineering contractors who work at Birchwood Park and at the chemical works keep generators, compressors, access platforms and welfare units that are sold when a contract ends.
We sell all of it by online timed auction. The contact form is the first step.
Plant from regulated sites comes with its records
A contractor who has worked inside a chemical plant or on a nuclear engineering contract usually keeps paperwork that most builders do not. Every generator has a service sheet and every access platform has a current inspection certificate. That is worth putting in front of a bidder, because hours, condition and the evidence behind them are what a machine is priced on.
We put the records in the catalogue, photographed, alongside the hour reading and the serial number, so that the LOLER certificate for a telehandler can be seen before anyone bids.
The one check we make before any of this is finance. Contract plant is often on hire purchase, and a financed machine belongs to the funder until it is settled, so their agreement and the settlement figure come before the listing. It is a few days' work and it stops a sale falling over later.
Omega compounds and the older yards by the canal
The two ends of the town are different jobs. A compound on Omega or beside the M62 at Gemini usually has hard standing and a wide gate, with the motorway junction within sight, so a sale there can run in place with a viewing day and booked collection slots once we have checked the turning space and the road outside.
The older estates near the Ship Canal are narrower. Woolston Grange and the yards around Bank Quay have shared entrances and roads laid out for smaller vehicles. We check the route before the sale opens, and where a loaded step frame cannot leave cleanly we can collect the plant first and sell it from our own premises.
Either way, Runcorn, Leigh, Knutsford and Altrincham are close enough to inspect the lots before the sale closes and the national trade bids online. A sale timed to close before the rent quarter day gives you a date for the yard to go back.
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 Warrington
- We are winding up a groundworks firm at Appleton Thorn. Should the plant be sold from the yard or moved?
From the yard, if the lease runs long enough to allow a sale and a few days of collection. Appleton Thorn is close to the M56 and the M6 and takes articulated lorries, though we check the gate and the loading point before planning a sale in place. If the yard has to go back before that is possible, we can collect the plant and sell it from our own premises. The bidding is online either way, so the catalogue reaches the same people.
- Will exporters bid on our older machines when Liverpool is so close?
Yes. High hour excavators and telehandlers are catalogued with dimensions and weight as well as hours, so a shipper can price the move before bidding, and the port at Liverpool is a short run down the M62 for a forwarder collecting from Warrington. Whether an older machine goes abroad or to a local hire yard depends on the bidding on the day, and online bidding puts both kinds of buyer in the same catalogue.
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.