Britannia AuctionsStock clearance auctions in Stoke-on-Trent
Ceramics leave a particular kind of surplus. A tableware factory ends a pattern and is left with open stock in every shape, plus the seconds that never went through the factory shop. A tile maker discontinues a range and has pallets of full boxes and part boxes in a colour nobody now orders. Sanitaryware sits in a yard in odd sizes after a contract changes. Across the six towns, this is ordinary, and it fills space that the factory needs.
We sell it by online auction, lotted for the buyers who trade in it. Discount and outlet retailers take full patterns. Tile merchants and contractors take complete boxes by the pallet. Market traders and online sellers take mixed lots of seconds.
The distribution sheds along the A500 and A50 and the plastics and food firms have their own surplus, and it goes into the same kind of sale. Tell us what you have through the form.
Tableware seconds and end of range tiles
Ceramic stock is sold by pattern, by shape and by grade. A full pattern in first quality is a lot for an outlet retailer or an exporter, and it sells best kept together. Broken ranges and odd shapes sell to market traders and online sellers who buy by the pallet and sort it themselves. Seconds are listed as seconds, with the grade stated plainly in the catalogue.
Tiles need the box count, the size, the finish and the batch number, because a contractor cannot lay a floor from two shades. Full boxes in one batch are lotted by the pallet. Part boxes and mixed batches are lotted for the buyer who wants them for small jobs.
Sanitaryware is lotted by item, with pans, cisterns, basins and pedestals matched where they can be. Odd items sell to merchants who complete sets from their own stock.
Packing, viewing and collection at the works
Ceramics break, so the collection plan matters more here than for most stock. We ask that stock is palletised and shrink wrapped before the viewing day where it can be, and we photograph each pallet as it stands so that buyers know what they are bidding on and what they will find when they arrive.
Viewing is on one fixed day at the works. Collection runs by booked slot over two or three days, and pallets go out on a forklift where the site has one. What the works can take is checked first, from the approach and turning space to the loading door and the lifting equipment, and it goes in the catalogue so buyers know what vehicle to bring.
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Crewe, Stafford and Uttoxeter are an easy drive from a viewing day, and the M6 at junctions 15 and 16 puts a haulier from anywhere in the country on a straight run. Export buyers bid online, and a full pattern can be lotted as a container load.
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 Stoke-on-Trent
- Our seconds carry a backstamp. Can they be sold at auction?
In most cases yes, because you own the brand and the backstamp is yours. The catalogue states the grade so no buyer can claim they thought they were buying firsts. If the pattern was made under licence for a retailer or a designer, the licence may control where it can be sold, and some retailers insist that the backstamp is ground off or the stock is destroyed. Check the agreement, and we will keep licensed stock out until you have.
- We have tile stock in several batches. Will buyers take mixed batches?
They will, at a lower price. Full pallets of one batch sell to contractors and merchants who need consistent shade for a job. Mixed batches sell to buyers who supply small jobs, repairs and DIY, and to market traders. We lot the two kinds apart and state batch numbers so that a buyer never finds a shade change they were not told about. A small quantity of mixed stock is often best added to a larger lot rather than sold on its own.
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.