Britannia AuctionsStock clearance auctions in Leicester
Leicester makes and moves a lot of stock. The clothing workshops in the east and west of the city work to short orders, and when a range is cancelled or a retailer changes its mind, the garments and the fabric they were cut from are left on the racks. Add the food, plastics and packaging firms and the big distribution sheds around Enderby and Lutterworth, and surplus stock is a regular problem here rather than an unusual one.
We sell that stock by online auction, lotted for trade buyers. A cancelled clothing order becomes lots by size run and colour. Rolls of fabric sell by the roll or by the pallet. Overordered packaging and components go to the firms that use the same lines.
Tell us what you have through the contact form, with a rough count, and we will say how we would lot it and when it could sell.
Clothing and fabric lots from the workshop trade
Clothing is catalogued around what a buyer can do with it. A market trader wants twenty pieces across a size run. An online reseller wants a hundred of one style. A wholesaler wants the whole rail. We split a cancelled order into all three kinds of lot so the sale is not left waiting on one buyer.
Fabric is a different sale. Rolls sell to other workshops, to upholsterers and to curtain makers, and the buyers want to know fibre, width and length before they bid. We measure and photograph each roll or each pallet of rolls, and part rolls are lotted separately from full ones.
Branded or labelled garments need a conversation first. Some can be sold with labels removed, some with the brand's agreement, and some cannot be sold at all. We will tell you which before anything is listed.
Collection from the older textile streets
Inner city workshops are checked before the sale is planned: street access and parking, the floor the stock sits on, the goods lift and what it will carry, and the route out. That shapes how the sale runs. Viewing is by appointment in a fixed window. Collection is by van and by hand, with a limit on how many buyers are in the building at once, and pallets are broken down if the stairs demand it.
A shed at Meridian Business Park or Beaumont Leys is checked the same way, and where there is a loading bay, hard standing and a forklift, buyers can back a van or a curtainsider up to the door and take full pallets. Where the stock is in an awkward building and the quantity justifies it, we move it to our own premises and sell from there.
Loughborough, Hinckley, Wigston and Market Harborough are all a short drive from the viewing, and the sale is online, so the catalogue is open nationally.
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 Leicester
- A retailer has cancelled a clothing order. How fast can it be sold?
From the first call, a clothing clearance can be catalogued within a few days if the stock is already counted and hung or boxed. The sale then runs for a week to ten days, with collection in the days after it closes. Two to three weeks from instruction to empty racks is a reasonable plan, though the dates depend on the count and the access. If you are up against a rent quarter day or a lease end, tell us the date and we plan the sale backwards from it.
- Can packaging and components be sold alongside the finished stock?
Yes, and it usually helps the sale. Overordered boxes, labels, hangers, poly bags and trims sell to other workshops and packers in the area who use the same items every day. Plastic mouldings and food packaging from the firms along the M1 corridor go the same way. We lot them by type and quantity so they do not get lost among the clothing lots, and each kind of stock is offered to the buyers who use it.
More questions about stock clearance
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Guides
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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
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