Britannia AuctionsStock clearance auctions in Manchester
A distribution shed pays rent by the square metre, and slow stock is the most expensive thing in it. Around Trafford Park and along the M62 towards Heywood and Rochdale, wholesalers and third party warehouses hold ranges for customers who have stopped ordering, seasonal lines that missed their window, and pallets of returns that were never processed. At some point the space is worth more than the goods.
A stock clearance auction turns those racks back into space on a date you choose. We catalogue the stock by pallet or by line, run an online timed sale for a week to ten days, and buyers collect in a fixed window afterwards. The sale is catalogued for wholesalers, market traders, discount retailers and online resellers, so the slower lines are offered alongside the good ones.
Send us a stock list, or just a description and a pallet count, and we will come back with a plan.
Wholesale and distribution stock from the big sheds
Stock in a distribution warehouse is usually already palletised, labelled and counted, which is the ideal starting point for an auction. We work from your stock list where there is one, check quantities on site, and photograph a sample from each line rather than every carton.
The question is how to lot it. Full pallets of one product sell to wholesalers and to discount chains who want volume. Split pallets and mixed cartons sell to smaller traders. Where a line runs to a whole bay, we offer it as one lot and as smaller lots, with the smaller lots only selling if the bulk lot does not reach its reserve. That protects you if the big buyer does not show up.
Customer returns and graded stock are listed as such, with a note of what has been checked. Buyers price returns lower, and a pallet of returns is usually better offered than left in quarantine.
Short dated and seasonal lines
Food and drink stock has a clock on it, and so does seasonal stock. The region has a large food and drink manufacturing base and the wholesalers who serve it. Stock within a few months of its best before date will not go through the normal channel, so at auction it is offered to discount and surplus food traders, with the storage conditions and dates stated in the catalogue. Interest depends on the shelf life left.
Seasonal goods work the other way round. Garden and summer lines left in a shed in Sharston or Agecroft in October need a buyer with the storage to hold them until spring, and Christmas stock in January is the same. The argument for selling early in the off season is that the buyer has to carry the stock until the season comes round.
What a site can take is checked before the collection plan is set: turning space, dock height and loading equipment. The trade in Stockport, Bolton, Warrington and Oldham is a short drive from the sheds, and full loads travel further by road.
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 Manchester
- We are a third party warehouse. Can we sell a customer's abandoned stock?
Sometimes, but not on your own say so. If the customer has stopped paying storage and stopped answering, you may have a lien over the goods under your terms and conditions, and there is a process of notice to follow before a sale. We need to see the contract and the correspondence before we list anything. Where the position is clear, we run the sale in the normal way and the proceeds are applied against what you are owed.
- The stock is spread across two sites. Do we need to bring it together?
Not always. One catalogue can cover two locations, with each lot stating where it is and separate viewing and collection days for each site. That saves moving pallets twice. It works best when both sites are on estates with easy access and each has enough stock to justify a viewing day. If one site holds a few pallets, it is usually simpler to move them to the main site, or to our own premises, before the sale opens.
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.