Britannia AuctionsStock clearance auctions in Leeds
Trade counters carry a lot of stock that nobody asks for any more. Across Hunslet, Stourton and Cross Green, the plumbing, electrical, fixings and building supplies counters hold ranges that a manufacturer discontinued years ago, and the stock is still on the shelf because writing it off feels worse than storing it. The print and packaging firms have the same problem in a different form, with paper, board and finished overruns from jobs that were cut short.
A stock clearance auction is the way to draw a line under it. We lot the stock so that other trade counters, contractors and resellers can bid for what they use, and the whole lot leaves in one collection window.
If the stock is part of a bigger clearance, a branch closing or a warehouse moving, we sell it alongside the racking and the equipment in the same sale. Tell us what you have through the form.
Trade counter stock and dead lines
Dead stock at a trade counter is usually current product in the wrong quantity or an obsolete product in any quantity. The first kind sells to other counters and to contractors who will use it on site. The second kind sells to specialist resellers who keep obsolete parts for repair work, and to online sellers who list it one unit at a time.
We lot by product group and by what a buyer would carry away in a van. Fixings by box, fittings by tray, cable by drum, tools by type. Anything with a manufacturer part number is listed with it, because that is how these buyers search.
If the branch is closing, the counters, racking and the forklift go in the same catalogue, so the fittings and the stock are offered to the same bidders.
Timing a clearance around a lease end
Most stock clearances in the southern estates are driven by a date. A lease ends, a branch consolidates, a warehouse moves to a bigger shed at Leeds Valley Park or Thorpe Park and the old unit has to be handed back empty. The auction fits that plan if it is booked early enough.
Working backwards, the keys go back on the last day. Collection needs several working days before that, and how many depends on how many lots there are and the access. Buyers need the sale to have closed before collection starts, the sale runs for a week to ten days, and cataloguing takes a few days before it opens. So the first call is best made about a month before the lease end, and six weeks gives room for things to go wrong.
The southern estates are minutes from the M621 and M1, so the trade in Bradford, Wakefield and Huddersfield is close enough for a van, and a lorry from anywhere else has a straight run in. Print and packaging stock is lotted in full pallet loads for buyers who collect by haulier.
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 Leeds
- We have paper and board left from a print contract. Who buys that?
Other printers and packaging converters, mainly. Paper and board are sold by the pallet with the grade, weight and sheet size stated, and a buyer running the same kind of press can use it, which is what the description is there to tell them. Printed overruns are harder, because the print belongs to your customer's job, and we would ask whether the customer wants them first. Plain stock, plates, inks and consumables all sell in the same catalogue.
- Can the auction cover the stock at two branches at once?
Yes. One catalogue can list lots at two or more sites, with the location shown on each lot and separate viewing and collection days at each. That suits a firm closing several branches on the same date. The alternative is to gather the stock at one branch or at our own premises, which works when one branch has only a few pallets. We will suggest which is cheaper once we know the quantities at each site.
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.