Britannia AuctionsPrivate treaty sales in Northampton
The biggest single asset in a Northampton warehouse is often the one bolted to the floor. A sortation system, a mezzanine conveyor loop, a pallet shuttle or an automated racking crane can be worth more than the vehicles in the yard, and when a tenant leaves Brackmills or Swan Valley the lease may require it to come out. The likely buyers are other parcel and retail operators and a handful of integrators, which suits a negotiated sale.
The town's older trades add different machines to the list. Footwear firms run clicking presses, lasting machines, sole presses and finishing plant with a small, known buyer pool. Food processors and print firms on Moulton Park and Round Spinney run lines that sell as a cell.
We market each of these directly, take offers in writing, and agree the price with you. Our fee is agreed in writing before marketing starts.
Sortation systems sold before the keys go back
A warehouse lease ends on a date, and where the dilapidations clause requires the building back as it came, the automation has to come out. That is the timing angle for a private treaty sale at Brackmills, Swan Valley or Pineham. Work backwards from the handover date. Allow the buyer's integrator time to survey, quote, strip and load the system. Then the marketing starts earlier than the handover date alone suggests, often while the building is still running parcels.
Sortation and conveyor systems suit other operators who want a working layout without buying new, and integrators who will re engineer them. Both want the drawings, the control system details, the spares list and the maintenance records. We gather those and describe the system as a whole rather than as a pile of rollers.
The trade in Wellingborough, Kettering, Daventry and Rugby is within easy reach, and the M1 at junctions 15 and 15a makes a viewing from further afield a short detour.
Footwear machines and the buyers who still want them
Footwear manufacturing continues in Northampton on a smaller scale than it once did, and that means the machines change hands more often than the factories do. A lasting line, a sole press, a clicking press or a bottoming line is a specialist asset. The pool of buyers is small and it is known: the other makers in the town and further afield, repairers, trade schools, and dealers who supply the small batch market across the UK and overseas.
That suits a private treaty sale. A general catalogue reaches a wide audience, most of which has no use for a lasting machine. We approach the part of it that does, describe the machine with its tooling and spares, and put offers to you in writing.
The same approach covers a food processing line on Moulton Park or a print and finishing cell on Lodge Farm, where a working line kept whole is easier to place with a trade buyer than the parts.
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 Northampton
- Our lease ends on a quarter day. How early should the sale start?
Earlier than feels comfortable. The timetable depends on the size of the system and the access, but it has the same parts each time: time for a buyer's integrator to survey and quote, time for the strip out and loading, and time for the landlord's inspection. Marketing has to start before all of that, and we propose a timetable working back from your handover date once the system has been seen. Start late and the field narrows to whoever can move fastest.
- Will the landlord let a buyer strip the equipment out?
That depends on the lease and the landlord, and the terms need to be agreed in writing. We ask you to check the dilapidations clause and any restriction on contractors. The buyer's integrator then works to a method statement and a schedule the landlord's agent has seen. Where the landlord would rather keep the system in place for the next tenant, that is a different sale, and it can be put to them.
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.