Britannia AuctionsSurplus equipment sales in Liverpool
Freight moves through Liverpool in volume, and the businesses that handle it renew their kit on a cycle. Forklifts reach their hours. Racking comes down when a contract changes. Containers bought for one job sit in a compound at Bootle or Kirkby with nothing to do. Add the car plant suppliers and the pharmaceutical sites at Speke, which retire process and test equipment on their own schedules, and the city produces a steady flow of surplus from businesses that are nowhere near closing.
A surplus sale moves it on without a shutdown. We catalogue the items where they stand, sell them online over a week or two and book collection into slots that fit around your trucks. The trade in St Helens, Warrington, Widnes and across the water in Birkenhead is a short trip from the viewing day, and bidding is open to the rest of the UK online.
Send us a list and we will say what is worth including.
Freight kit and what the port trade buys
Warehouse surplus is the bulk of it. Counterbalance and reach trucks, pallet racking, dock equipment, pallet wrappers, weighing scales. All of it is in standard use, and an honest description with hours, service history and faults noted is what a bidder needs. Racking is easiest to judge while it is still standing, and where a contract change means bays are coming down we would rather offer them by the run first and dismantle in phases.
Shipping containers are a Liverpool speciality. Dry boxes, reefers and containers fitted out as stores or offices are catalogued for hauliers, builders, farmers and anyone who needs weatherproof storage. We photograph the doors, the floor and any fit out, because that is what bidders look at.
Pharmaceutical and food process kit is more specialist. Stainless vessels, filling machines and laboratory instruments need a technical description, and we take the time to write one.
Booking collection around a live yard
A yard that is still receiving trucks has no spare room for a buyer's lorry parked in the wrong place. So collection is booked into slots inside a window you set, and each buyer knows the time and the entrance to use. Our staff attend for the whole window, release lots once their invoices are paid and keep visitors away from the working areas.
Knowsley Industrial Park, the business parks at Speke and the older dockside roads at Seaforth and Bootle are all different, so the approach, the turning space and the loading arrangements are checked when we first visit and written into the catalogue for any lot that needs a large vehicle.
How a container leaves depends on the site and the lifting available, and we group their collection so one vehicle can take several in a visit. Small lots, hand tools, office contents and IT, can go to our own premises and sell from there, so nobody visits the site at all.
What these sales can include
- Machine tools and CNC equipment
- Forklifts and access platforms
- Pallet racking and shelving
- Compressors and air tools
- Welders and fabrication kit
- Vehicles and trailers
- Test and measurement equipment
- Site accommodation and containers
- Packaging and labelling machines
- Obsolete stock and components
- Office furniture and IT
- Catering and canteen equipment
Selling from a live site
Most surplus sales happen inside a business that is still trading. That changes how we work. Cataloguing is done around your shifts. Viewing is by appointment or on a single day, with visitors signed in and escorted. Collection is booked in slots so that nobody is moving a machine through the middle of a production run.
Items that are still bolted down, plumbed in or connected to services are isolated by a competent person before collection, with electrical and gas disconnection done by qualified people. Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots, and they do not disconnect services themselves.
Tell us about anything that affects access: weight limits on floors, door heights, crane availability, restricted hours. It all goes in the catalogue so buyers plan the removal properly.
The surplus equipment sales page covers what counts as surplus, one sale or a standing arrangement, pricing, reserves and the buyer's premium, after the sale.
Questions about selling in Liverpool
- Our forklifts are on a hire agreement that ends soon. Can they go in the sale?
Only if you own them at the point of sale. Trucks on hire go back to the hire company, and a truck on hire purchase or lease is the funder's until the agreement is settled, so it can only be offered with their agreement. If the agreement ends with a purchase option, exercise it first and then consign. If you are not sure what the agreement says, send it to us with the list and we will tell you which trucks can be sold and which cannot.
- Do containers sell better empty or with the fit out left in?
Usually with the fit out, as long as it is in reasonable condition and described properly. A container already fitted with lighting, power, insulation or shelving saves the buyer a job, which is worth describing in full. A fit out that is damaged or half stripped is better removed. We look at each one and give you a view before it is catalogued, and we photograph the inside as well as the doors.
More questions about surplus equipment
Related services
Guides
- Preparing machinery and equipment for sale
What to do before viewing day. Keep the machines that can be run safely available to demonstrate, isolate the rest, clean but do not repaint, find the tooling and manuals, and sort out access for removal.
- How used machinery is valued
Buyers pay for what a machine will do for them, less what it costs to get it out and running. This guide explains how make, hours, tooling, demand and removal cost feed a guide price, and why that price is not book value.