Britannia AuctionsPrivate treaty sales in Cardiff
A shredder, a baler line, a scrap shear or a sorting line is the sort of asset that turns up around the docks and Lamby Way, and it is exactly the sort of asset that suits a negotiated sale. The pool of buyers for a large shredder in the UK is narrow, and it tends to know itself. A small pool in a public auction can hold back and watch. Approached one at a time, with a full description and a closing date for offers, each can price the machine on its own terms.
The same applies to steel processing plant near the works at Tremorfa, to fleet vehicles on the Wentloog estates, to packaging lines from the food producers and to the studio and broadcast equipment in the Bay. We describe the asset, approach the buyers who deal in it, handle the offers and agree the price with you. Our fee is agreed in writing before marketing starts.
Recycling plant and steel processing lines
Waste and recycling firms around the east of the city and the port run plant that is heavy and specialist. Shredders, balers, eddy current separators, trommels, screeners and the conveyors that connect them. The likely buyers are other operators and the dealers who refurbish this kit, and the questions to expect are the hours, the wear parts fitted, the motor sizes and the electrical drawings.
Steel and metals plant is a smaller group with a similar market. Coil handling equipment, slitting and cut to length lines, shears and the cranes that serve them go to processors in the UK and abroad, and a buyer overseas can have the plant shipped from the docks rather than trucked to a port elsewhere.
For both we prepare a description that answers the engineer's questions before they are asked, then run sealed bids where more than one buyer is serious. The trade in Newport, Bridgend, Caerphilly and Llantrisant is within easy reach, and inspections are by appointment.
Studio kit needs a different buyer list
Media and creative businesses in the Bay and the city centre own equipment that has nothing in common with a shredder except its price. Broadcast cameras and lenses, grading and edit suites, lighting rigs, sound stages fitted out for one production. When a company closes a studio or a production wraps, that kit has value to other production companies, to hire firms, to broadcasters and to the dealers who supply them, and that list has little overlap with a machinery auction catalogue.
We handle this as a separate private treaty sale with its own description and its own list. Serial numbers, hours on the heads, firmware and the case and accessory inventory belong in the description, and a suite written up as a working setup can be offered as one lot.
Removal is lighter than for plant, though it is still checked: the route out of the building, the lift, and where a van can stand. Packing can be arranged where that is agreed.
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 Cardiff
- Is a large shredder better sold at auction or by private treaty?
Often private treaty, though it depends on the machine. A shredder has few buyers and each has a heavy removal and a rebuild to plan before they can use it. Unknowns of that size get priced into any bid. Marketed directly, with drawings, photographs, wear part history and a lift plan settled in advance, a buyer has less to allow for and can offer on what the machine is worth to them.
- Can a broadcast studio be sold as one lot to a single buyer?
It can be sold that way. A production company or a hire firm taking on a fitted studio may want the cameras, the desk, the lighting and the acoustic treatment as a working room, and a complete room is easier to describe than a list of parts. We describe the studio as a whole, photograph it as a working room, list what is fixed and what is loose and let the offers show whether a single buyer or a split sale gives the better result.
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.