Britannia AuctionsStock clearance auctions in Coventry
Vehicle programmes end on a date, and the parts stock does not end with them. The component makers and tooling shops around Binley, Bayton Road and Seven Stars are left with finished parts, subassemblies, castings and raw material bought for volumes that were cut, and the returnable packaging that shuttled between them and the plant is stacked in the yard with nowhere to go.
We sell that stock by online auction to the firms that can use it. Parts with a general application sell to aftermarket dealers and repairers. Material and consumables sell to other engineering firms. Stillages, totes and pallets are lotted for anyone who moves goods.
The distribution sheds at Ryton and Middlemarch have a different kind of surplus, with retail and consumer lines that stopped moving, and those go into the same kind of sale. Tell us what you have through the form.
Parts stock left when a vehicle programme ends
End of programme stock falls into a few groups, and each sells to a different buyer. Finished parts with a part number and a vehicle application sell to aftermarket and repair buyers, and the catalogue lists the application so those buyers can find it. Parts made to a customer drawing with no aftermarket use sell for the material in them. Raw bar, castings and forgings sell to other machine shops.
Before anything is listed, we check the supply agreement. Some agreements give the vehicle maker the right to buy surplus at cost, and some restrict sale of parts carrying their marking. We ask, in writing, before the sale opens.
The aftermarket is usually where the value sits. A pallet of a part that fits a common vehicle can be worth more sold as parts than as scrap, though that depends on the application, the condition and how many are in the lot. We say what interest we would expect before you commit.
Returnable packaging and consumables
Steel stillages, plastic totes, pallet boxes and dunnage are the forgotten stock of a component maker. When a programme ends they are worth cataloguing rather than scrapping. They are lotted by the stack for logistics firms, other suppliers and general engineering businesses, and they load onto a flatbed or a curtainsider in the yard.
Consumables sell in the same catalogue. Cutting tools, abrasives, welding wire, gloves, adhesives and paint that were bought against a programme go to the machine shops and fabricators that use the same items. We lot by type in quantities a buyer can carry away.
What your own yard can take is checked when we first visit, from vehicle access and room to turn to loading facilities, and collection then runs in booked slots over two or three days. Nuneaton, Rugby, Leamington Spa and Hinckley are all within a short drive, and the M6 and M69 make a full load simple for a lorry from further away. Where the yard is needed for the next job, the packaging can come to our own premises and be sold there.
What these sales can include
- Discontinued product lines
- Overordered components and parts
- Customer returns and graded stock
- Seasonal goods
- Ex display and showroom items
- Packaging and consumables
- Raw materials and fabrics
- Bulk trade stock on pallets
- Tools and hardware
- Homeware and furniture stock
- Clothing and footwear
- Building products and fixings
Running the sale
A stock clearance runs as an online timed auction, open for a week to ten days in most cases. There is a viewing day at your premises, or at the location where the stock has been gathered. Bidders inspect the lots, then bid online until each lot closes.
After the sale, buyers collect within a window agreed with you, usually a few days. Collection is the point where a stock sale needs organising. Buyers arrive with vans and lorries, lots have to be handed to the right person and the paperwork has to match. Our staff manage the door and sign each lot out.
If you cannot host viewing and collection, the stock can be moved to our premises or a third party warehouse where that is agreed. That adds transport cost but keeps the process away from your trading site.
The stock clearance auctions page covers when an auction is the right route, lotting the stock, offered as seen and the buyer's position, alternatives to auction.
Questions about selling in Coventry
- Battery and electric vehicle components are part of our surplus. Can they be sold at auction?
Some can. Cell modules and packs need careful handling and cannot simply go into a general sale, because storage, transport and the buyer's ability to deal with them all matter. We would assess them separately and may advise a direct sale to a specialist recycler or reuser. Motors, controllers, cabling, connectors and the mechanical parts around them sell normally to engineering and repair buyers. Tell us what you have and we will separate the two.
- The stillages are marked with our customer's name. Does that matter?
Usually not, provided the stillages are yours. Returnable packaging is often owned by the vehicle maker and only loaned to the supplier, so the first question is whose it is, and the answer is in the packaging agreement or the invoices. If it is yours, the marking is a paint job for the buyer to deal with. If it is theirs, it goes back to them, and we keep it out of the sale.
More questions about stock clearance
Related services
Guides
- What insolvency practitioners need from an auctioneer
For office holders realising physical assets. Covers the instruction letter, the asset schedule and valuation basis, retention of title, finance checks, site security, health and safety during the sale, and the reconciliation you need for the file.
- 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.