Britannia AuctionsStock clearance auctions in Nottingham
Wholesale is a big part of what goes on around the Nottingham ring road. Distributors at Lenton Lane, Colwick and Blenheim Industrial Estate hold ranges for retailers across the East Midlands, and a range that stops selling does not stop taking up bays. Discontinued lines, overordered seasonal goods, damaged cartons and returns from retail customers build up until someone decides the space is worth more than the stock.
That is where an auction helps. We take the slow lines out of the warehouse in one sale, lotted for the wholesalers, market traders, discount retailers and online resellers who buy on volume. Bidding runs online for a week to ten days and collection follows in a fixed window.
The same sale works for printers with paper and finished overruns, and for food and drink producers with short dated or discontinued packaging. Use the form and tell us what is on the racks and roughly how much.
Wholesale lines that have stopped moving
A wholesaler's slow stock is often perfectly good product in a quantity the market has lost interest in. The way to sell it is to reach a different market. A discount retailer may take a whole line at a price that reflects a fast sale. A market trader takes a pallet. An online reseller takes a hundred units and sells them one at a time.
We lot for all of them. Bulk lots are offered first, with smaller lots underneath that sell only if the bulk lot fails to reach its reserve. Returns and graded stock are listed separately and described as such.
Where the stock is branded, the question is whether your supplier terms allow resale outside your normal channel. Most do. Some do not, and some suppliers would rather take the stock back for credit, which is worth asking about before we catalogue anything.
Viewing and collection across the ring road estates
The ring road keeps Lenton Lane, Colwick and Bulwell a few minutes apart, which helps when stock sits on more than one site. What your own unit can take is checked first, from the loading bay and hard standing to turning space and door dimensions, and the viewing day and collection window are planned around it.
Viewing runs on one fixed day before the sale closes. Collection is by booked slot over two or three days, with pallets loaded by forklift where the site has one. Small lots are collected by van. Full pallet loads going to buyers further afield leave on a curtainsider, and the M1 at junctions 24 to 27 means a lorry can be in and out without crossing the city.
Derby, Mansfield, Loughborough and Newark are well placed to come and look before bidding closes, and online bidding opens the catalogue to the rest of the UK. If your unit cannot take the traffic, we collect the stock and sell it from our own premises instead.
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 Nottingham
- Some of our stock is on pallets in a bonded or temperature controlled area. Can it be sold?
Temperature controlled stock can be sold, with the storage conditions stated in the catalogue and a collection window short enough that the chain is not broken. Buyers of chilled or frozen goods bring the right vehicle. Bonded stock is different, because duty is unpaid, and a sale needs the buyer to be able to receive it under bond or the duty to be settled first. Tell us at the start and we will work out which route applies.
- We supply the pharmaceutical trade. Is any of our stock unsaleable?
Some of it. Medicines and anything that needs a licence to hold or supply cannot go through an open auction. What can be sold is the general stock around it, which is usually the bulk of a warehouse. Packaging, consumables, dispensing sundries, plain containers and non regulated health and hygiene lines all sell to trade buyers. We ask for a stock list, mark what falls outside the sale and lot the rest.
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.