Britannia AuctionsPrivate treaty sales in Leicester
A single injection moulding machine or a late model printing press is worth weighing as a sale on its own rather than as the top lot in an auction. Leicester has plastics, printing, packaging and food processing firms across the city, and when one of those businesses replaces a machine or drops a product line, that one asset can carry more value than everything else on the floor put together. Private treaty is how we sell it.
We inspect the machine, prepare a full description, and approach the dealers and end users who trade in that type of machine, including any we know of who are looking. There is no public sale date, so competitors and customers need not know a machine is on the market until it has gone. Tell us what you have through the form below and we will say whether a quiet sale is the better route.
Machines that suit a negotiated sale here
The plastics and packaging firms on estates such as Beaumont Leys and Braunstone Frith run the kind of plant that has a small, known pool of buyers. A large tonnage moulding machine, a multi colour press or a form fill seal line does not need a hundred bidders. It needs the handful of dealers and end users who trade in that type of machine, approached directly with a full specification.
Food processing plant is similar. A late model line with a service history is worth a proper description, photographs and a sealed bid process rather than a place in a general auction.
- Injection moulding machines and ancillaries
- Printing presses and finishing lines
- Packaging and form fill seal lines
- Food processing and cooking lines
- CNC machining centres from the engineering shops
Older textile machinery from the inner city workshops is usually an auction lot rather than a private treaty asset. We will tell you which is which.
Getting the machine out of a tight unit
Where the machine sits changes the sale. On the outer estates near junction 21 there is usually yard space to work in, and in an older unit off one of the inner city textile streets there may not be. Either way the removal is checked before the description is written, because a buyer prices it into their offer.
We deal with that on our first visit. The description states the vehicle access and the turning circle, the floor level, the door dimensions and what handling equipment the route out calls for, so offers come in on the same basis.
The trade in Loughborough, Hinckley, Coalville and Market Harborough is within easy reach for an inspection, and a dealer further afield may send a rigger instead of coming. A negotiated sale allows time to arrange that.
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 Leicester
- Can a private treaty sale be timed to a lease end on a Leicester estate?
Yes, within reason. A negotiated sale has no fixed closing date, so we work back from the date you must be out. We start marketing early, put a deadline on offers, and agree collection before the keys go back. If the lease end is only a few weeks away and the machine is still unsold, we can switch it to our next auction or move it to our own premises and continue the sale from there.
- My machine is on finance. Can it still be sold by private treaty?
It can, with the funder's written consent before we market it. The machine belongs to them until the agreement is settled, so we ask for the paperwork and the settlement figure at the start. The buyer pays us, the settlement is usually paid from the proceeds, and you receive the balance after our fee and any agreed costs once the funds have cleared and the machine has been released. Financing over several years is common in plastics and packaging, so this has to be in order before offers are invited.
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.