Britannia AuctionsSurplus equipment sales in Manchester
Most of the surplus we sell around Manchester comes out of big sheds rather than small workshops. A distribution operator on Trafford Park replaces its forklift fleet. A food packer along the M62 changes a line and the old one is left on pallets at the back. A recycling firm upgrades a baler. An engineering shop in Openshaw buys a new machining centre and keeps the old one for a year. None of them are closing. They have kit that is no longer earning.
That is what a surplus sale is for. We catalogue the items where they stand, sell them online over a week or two, and book collection in slots that fit around your goods in and out. The M60 puts most of the estates within a short drive of each other, so a single sale can pull consignments from several sites and still make sense to buyers.
Tell us what you have through the form. We will say what is worth selling and what is not.
Racking and trucks on the renewal cycle
Forklifts and pallet racking are the two things Manchester generates in volume, and both are standard items with a wide field of possible buyers. A counterbalance truck with a service history suits any business with a yard, and racking is lotted by the bay for whoever is fitting out a unit. The trade in Bolton, Stockport, Warrington and across the conurbation is well placed for the viewing day, and bidding is online from further away.
Racking is worth thinking about early. Standing racking in a live warehouse can be sold and dismantled in phases, so you keep the bays you need until the last one goes. Racking already taken down and stacked is harder for a buyer to judge, because nobody can count the beams easily. If the takedown has not happened yet, talk to us first.
Fleet renewals repeat. Where yours do, a standing arrangement can be agreed instead of a single sale, so trucks coming off lease or reaching their hours are collected and go into the next suitable one.
Big estates and the older east side sites
What a site will take is the first thing we check, on the large estates and on the older sites at Openshaw and Newton Heath alike: how a vehicle gets in and turns, the loading facilities, door dimensions and whether a forklift will still be there once the business has sold its own. Some units have a single roller shutter onto a side street. All of it goes into the catalogue, so buyers arrive with the right vehicle and their own lifting.
For a live site we run viewing on a single day or by appointment, with visitors signed in and escorted. Collection is booked into slots in the window we agree with you, and our staff attend to release lots once their invoices are paid.
Small consignments, packaging machines, test gear, office contents, IT, can go to our own premises and sell from there, which saves you hosting anyone 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 Manchester
- We run 24 hour shifts. When would you catalogue and collect?
Around them. Cataloguing is a couple of people with a camera and a list, and it can happen on a quiet shift or at a weekend. Collection is the noisier part, and we book it into a window you choose, with individual slots so no more than one buyer's vehicle is on site at once. If the surplus can be moved to one end of the building before the sale, that helps, because buyers then never need to be near the live area.
- Our surplus is spread over several sites across Greater Manchester. One sale or several?
Usually one. A single catalogue with lots grouped by site keeps the paperwork together and gives a buyer one place to look. Each site keeps its own viewing appointment and collection window, and the catalogue tells buyers which address each lot is at. Where one site only has a handful of small items, we can collect those and sell them from our own premises, so you are not opening the doors there at all.
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.