Britannia AuctionsSurplus equipment sales in Nottingham
Surplus in Nottingham comes from an unusually mixed set of industries. Pharmaceutical and food firms around Beeston and Lenton Lane replace filling and packaging lines on a schedule. Printers change presses. Wholesalers at Colwick take down racking when the range changes. Engineering shops keep a machine they no longer run. Each of these leaves working equipment standing in a building the business still needs.
The sale is built around the business, not the other way round. We catalogue where the items stand, photograph and describe them, run an online timed auction over a week or two and bring buyers in by appointment. Collection is booked in slots inside a window you set, and our staff attend to release lots against paid invoices.
The ring road makes it easy to pull consignments from several estates into one catalogue. The trade in Derby, Mansfield, Newark and Loughborough is a short trip from the viewing day.
Laboratory and process kit needs a careful description
Pharmaceutical and food surplus is often specialist. Stainless vessels, tablet presses, blister packers, fume cupboards, balances, HPLC systems and the test and measurement gear around them. The buyers are technical and they read the catalogue closely, so we record model numbers, capacities, validation and service history where you have it, and photograph the wetted parts.
Anything that has handled controlled substances or hazardous materials needs to be decontaminated and documented before it goes in a sale. We will tell you what buyers expect to see and what we can and cannot offer.
Reserves are worth considering on the main items. We give you an opinion of likely hammer prices first. They are estimates. Specialist kit can make more than expected when two of the right buyers turn up, and less when they do not, and the market on the day decides.
Moving on the heavy and the bulky
A printing press is a rigging job. It is heavy, it is bolted down and it comes out through a door that was probably built after it went in. We look at the route before the sale and we write the collection requirements into the catalogue, so the buyer arrives with the right crew and equipment or asks us to arrange it.
Racking is bulky rather than heavy. It is easiest to judge standing, because buyers can count the bays and see the uprights. If your range change means half the warehouse comes down, tell us before the takedown and it can be offered by the run.
What each estate will take differs, and the older parts of Lenton Lane and Colwick have some tight yards, so access, turning space and the loading door are checked before anything is listed. Collection is by booked slot in a window you set, one buyer at a time, with our staff on site to release lots. Small lots can go to our own premises and sell from there.
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 Nottingham
- Our old filling line is still on a lease. Can we sell it?
Only with the funder's agreement. Equipment on lease or hire purchase belongs to them until the agreement is settled, so it cannot be offered without their written agreement. Where they do agree, the settlement figure is usually paid from the proceeds and the balance comes to you, or you can settle first and sell clean. Check the paperwork on every major item early, because consent takes time to obtain.
- Is it worth selling a small quantity of surplus from one unit?
It can be. A dozen items from a Nottingham unit can go into a collective sale alongside consignments from other businesses, so they sit in the same catalogue as a larger entry. If the items are small enough for a van we collect them and sell from our own premises, which means nobody has to visit you. If they are heavier, we catalogue on site and book a single collection day. Send a list and we will say which route fits.
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.