Britannia AuctionsPrivate treaty sales in Bradford
Bradford's machines are heavy and they live in awkward buildings. A tunnel oven from a bakery on Dudley Hill, a stenter or a dyeing range in a stone mill off the Canal Road corridor, a large format press in a printing works at Thornbury, a borer in an engineering shop at Keighley. Each is a single high value item with a buyer pool that can be counted, and each is a removal job before it is a sale. That combination is where private treaty earns its place. The buyer needs time to plan and the seller needs a price agreed before anything is dismantled. Where you would rather customers did not hear of it first, a negotiated sale keeps it off a public catalogue.
We inspect the machine, write it up with its history, approach buyers who deal in that type of plant and put every offer to you in writing. Our fee is agreed in writing before marketing starts.
Bakery ovens and mill floor machinery
Food manufacturing is a steady source of this kind of machine in the district. Bakeries and snack and sauce producers run tunnel ovens, provers, depositors, fryers and packing lines that are sold on when a product changes or a site consolidates. The likely buyers are other food producers and specialist dealers, and the questions to expect are throughput, age, the service log and the fuel type.
Textile plant is different. A worsted spinning frame, a stenter or a finishing range has a narrow market here, and export interest is possible where the type is still in use. Condition, completeness and whether the machine can be seen running all bear on the price, so we market a finishing range under power in the mill where the site allows it.
Printing and packaging firms add large format presses and converting lines, and the engineering shops in Keighley and Shipley add borers and machining centres. Each machine gets its own buyer list.
A steep yard changes who can buy
Some of the older mill sites have tight yards and steep approaches, and that decides the removal before anyone talks about price. A dyeing range on the first floor of a mill needs the floor checked, a route to a loading door found, a crane set up in a yard built for horses, and a weekend when the mill is empty.
So we settle the access first. We measure the doors, check the floor, walk the route to the road and put the answer in the description with photographs. Where a mobile crane is needed we say so, and where the yard cannot take one we say that too. The buyer then offers for the machine as it can actually be removed, not as they fear it might be.
Sites on Euroway and near the M606 have a short run to the M62, and the approach and the yard there are checked as they would be anywhere else. The trade in Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield and Keighley is within easy reach for an inspection, and buyers elsewhere come by appointment.
What these sales can include
- CNC machining centres and lathes
- Printing presses
- Injection moulding machines
- Packaging lines
- Large generators and switchgear
- Cranes and heavy lifting equipment
- Specialist process plant
- Laboratory and test equipment
- Complete production cells
- Late model plant and vehicles
- Marine and rail equipment
- High value catering and bakery lines
How we market the asset
We inspect the asset, or have it inspected, and prepare a description with photographs, specification, condition and any service history. We then approach buyers directly: dealers who trade in that type of machine, and end users the asset suits. The asset can be advertised openly or offered only to selected parties. How open we are depends on how much confidentiality you need.
Interested buyers inspect by appointment. We attend or arrange access, answer questions and take offers. You are kept informed at each stage but do not have to deal with the buyers yourself.
There is no fixed end date. A private treaty sale takes as long as it takes to find the right buyer at the right price, which is one of its advantages and one of its costs.
The private treaty sales page covers when private treaty beats auction, how offers are handled, fees and what you receive, what to prepare.
Questions about selling in Bradford
- Is there still a buyer for worsted spinning and finishing plant?
There can be, and export interest is possible, because this type of machine is still in use in other countries. The dealers who supply that trade look for complete ranges with spares, drawings, manuals and the settings book. Condition, completeness and whether the range can be demonstrated matter more than age. A range that has stood cold for years is harder to place, and we would rather say so when we walk the site than after marketing.
- Does a tunnel oven sell as one item or in sections?
As one item, if you can. A tunnel oven is sold with its burners, controls, conveyor and the prover or cooler that feeds it, because a bakery buying it is usually looking for a working line rather than a project. Splitting it only makes sense when the sections have failed separately or a buyer wants the burner set alone. We describe the whole line, photograph it running, note which parts can be sold apart and let the offers tell us.
More questions about private treaty
Related services
Guides
- Auction or private treaty: which route to choose
Auction gives you a fixed date and an open market. Private treaty gives you a negotiated price and privacy. This guide sets out when each route suits, what you give up with each, and why many sales use both.
- What happens to unsold lots
Not every lot sells, but the site still has to be cleared. This guide covers why lots go unsold, private treaty after the sale, lowering or removing the reserve, a later sale, scrap and WEEE recycling, and what disposal costs.