Britannia AuctionsWarehouse and logistics equipment sales in Manchester
Most of the warehouse equipment we sell around Manchester comes out of Trafford Park or the sheds along the M62 towards Rochdale. Trafford Park mixes wholesale, distribution, recycling and manufacturing in one estate, and a closure there can put racking, forklifts, a baler and a compactor into the same sale. The M62 sheds are contract logistics, where a lost account empties a building of stock and leaves the fit out behind.
We run online timed auctions for both. For a shed with a yard, we catalogue on site, hold a viewing day and set collection days after the close. For a wholesale unit on one of the older estates in the east, we can collect the equipment ourselves and sell it from our premises. Every job has one person on it from the first call to settlement. Tell us through the contact form what you have and the date the site must be empty.
Wholesale units and the racking that comes with them
Cash and carry and wholesale businesses store a lot of stock in a small footprint, so their racking is dense, often a mix of pallet racking at the back and longspan shelving at the front, with a mezzanine over the office. When a wholesaler closes, the racking is the largest item in the sale and also the last to leave.
We sell it by run, with frame heights and beam lengths in the catalogue, and the buyer arranges and pays for the dismantling on days agreed with you. Fit out contractors and wholesalers in Bolton and Stockport use the same racking. Stock left in the building at instruction is no problem. It can be sold in the same auction or a separate one, with rack collection following the last pallet out. The pallet trucks, the stretch wrapper, the pallet scale and the roll cages go into the same sale as small lots.
Working around peak season on the M62
Contract logistics has a rhythm. Sheds on the M62 corridor fill for the autumn peak and empty after Christmas, and that is when contracts change hands and buildings come back to landlords. A sale in late January or February lands when operators who have just won new work are fitting out with reach trucks, chargers, dock levellers and racking.
If your contract ends in the new year, the useful thing to do is call us before peak, so that we can walk the site, agree what is in the sale and have the catalogue ready to go live the week the last stock leaves. Trafford Park and the M60 junctions are easy enough to reach, though the yard, the dock and the turning space are checked at the visit and described in the catalogue. Trucks and chargers usually go first and racking last, agreed with you for the site. Planned that way, the handover date drives the sale rather than the other way round.
What these sales can include
- Counterbalance forklifts
- Reach trucks
- Powered pallet trucks
- Hand pallet trucks
- Pallet racking
- Mezzanine floors
- Longspan and cantilever shelving
- Conveyors and sortation
- Roll cages and stillages
- Stretch wrap machines
- Pallet scales
- Battery chargers
- Order pickers and stackers
- Dock levellers and loading equipment
How the sale runs
After a site visit we agree what is in the sale and what stays. We catalogue and photograph each lot, list the sale online and market it to warehouse operators, dealers and contractors. Bidders view on a set day, then bid online over the sale period, with lots closing in sequence.
Lots are offered as seen under the auction terms, with buyers expected to inspect before bidding. The buyer pays the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately. We collect payment before release.
Collection runs over a window agreed with you. Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots, with suitable handling equipment or specialist contractors where the item needs them. Our staff attend to release lots against paid invoices and see that dismantling is done safely.
The warehouse and logistics equipment sales page covers racking and how it comes down, forklifts and the records that matter, the small equipment adds up, timing a sale around a site handover.
Questions about selling in Manchester
- Our unit is on an older estate in Openshaw. Will access be a problem for buyers?
Sites in the east of the city vary, so we look rather than assume. At the first visit we check the approach, the turning space, the door dimensions and the loading facilities, and whatever we find goes in the catalogue, including the largest vehicle that can reach the door. Where the racking and trucks would be hard to move, they can be collected to our own premises and sold from there, which takes the awkwardness out of what a bidder is pricing.
- We have a baler and a compactor as well as the warehouse kit. Can they go in the same sale?
Yes. Trafford Park and the recycling sites nearby produce this mix often, and a baler is the kind of thing waste firms and warehouses handling cardboard fit out with. We lot it alongside the forklifts and racking, note whether it is on hire or lease, and agree a collection slot that lets the buyer bring a suitable vehicle. One catalogue covering the whole site is simpler for you and for the people bidding.
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