Britannia AuctionsPrivate treaty sales in Nottingham
For pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment, the paperwork is worth almost as much as the machine. A tablet press, a coater, a freeze dryer or a bank of analytical instruments from a site in Beeston or on Lenton Lane suits a small group of buyers, who will look for the qualification records, the calibration history, the change control file and the reason it is being sold. None of that fits a general auction with a one week bidding window. It fits a negotiated sale.
Private treaty is what we call that. We prepare a description that answers the questions a validation manager will ask, approach the buyers who trade in this equipment, and handle offers in writing. The same route suits a late model printing press or a packaging line from the estates at Colwick or Bulwell, where one machine carries most of the value on the site. Our fee is agreed in writing before marketing begins.
Equipment that needs its history to sell
Process and laboratory equipment from the pharmaceutical and food sites around Nottingham has a buyer pool that is narrow and specific. Contract manufacturers, research labs, food and cosmetics producers, and specialist dealers who refurbish and export. What they pay depends on what they can prove about the machine.
Before we market anything we gather the installation and operational qualification records, the maintenance log, the last calibration certificates and the cleaning history. A machine with a complete file can be put back into a regulated process. One without it is a used machine and is priced as one.
Then we approach the list. A coater or a granulator goes to the contract manufacturers first. Chromatography and test instruments go to the labs and the refurbishers. Where two or more parties want the same item we run sealed bids to a date, and you see every offer with our recommendation before anything is agreed.
Clean removal from a controlled area
Taking a machine out of a clean room is a different job from lifting a press out of a workshop. The buyer needs to know how it comes out, through which doors, whether the room stays in service around it, and what state the machine must be in when it leaves. We agree that with you before offers are invited, so the buyer's rigger can quote on the job as it stands.
The estates are more straightforward, though they are still checked. At Lenton Lane, Colwick, Bulwell or Bestwood we look at the vehicle access, the turning space, the loading arrangements and the door dimensions, and the ring road gives a route between them. A viewing is a short trip for the trade in Derby, Loughborough, Mansfield and Newark, and the M1 gives the rest of the country a road route.
Where equipment must leave site before a buyer is found, for a lease end or a site handover, it can be collected and the sale continued from our own premises.
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 Nottingham
- Can laboratory instruments be sold by private treaty, or only large machines?
Both, as long as the value is there. A single analytical instrument may be an auction lot, but a freeze dryer or a mass spectrometer with a service contract has enough value and a narrow enough market to justify a direct approach. We look at the whole list, sell the high value items by private treaty to the labs and refurbishers who want them, and put the rest into an auction so nothing is left behind.
- Who answers the buyer's validation questions during the sale?
We do, using the file you give us at the start. A serious buyer will ask about qualification, calibration, change control and cleaning, and we put those questions to you in one batch rather than one at a time, then pass your answers on. Anything we cannot answer from the file is put to you directly. Once the sale completes and the machine is collected, its requalification at the buyer's site is their responsibility, and the sale terms say so.
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.