Britannia AuctionsWarehouse and logistics equipment sales in Peterborough
An engine block on a pallet weighs more than a pallet of groceries, and a header bar for a combine is longer than any standard beam. The stores that serve Peterborough's engine and agricultural machinery trade are built to suit, with heavy duty pallet racking, cantilever racking and forklifts rated well above the usual two tonnes. When a supplier at Fengate or Orton Southgate loses a work package, the other engineering firms in the city and the machinery dealers out in the Fens use equipment of the same kind.
At the other end of the scale are the distribution sheds at the Gateway by the A1(M), where the racking is standard, the trucks are reach trucks and the sale is about speed before a handover. We sell both kinds by online timed auction, from your site or from our own premises. Tell us what you have through the contact form and we will come and look.
Heavy duty racking and the load ratings that sell it
Standard pallet racking is rated for a tonne or so a pallet position. Racking from an engine parts store or a machinery dealer is often rated for two or three times that, with heavier frames, closer beam spacing and decking. That matters in a sale because a firm storing that kind of weight cannot use lighter racking, so the rating is the first thing a bidder checks. We record frame sections, beam lengths and the load notices on every run, and we photograph them.
The same goes for the trucks. A five tonne counterbalance truck with a current report of thorough examination and a fork positioner belongs with fabricators, steel stockholders and plant dealers, so we mark the attachments and the hours in the catalogue. Cantilever racking for long parts and stillages for castings suit the same trades. Stamford, Corby, Huntingdon and Spalding are near enough to attend the viewing day, and the A1(M) keeps the journey simple for a haulier collecting from anywhere on the East Coast.
Fenland food stores and the packing line
Food processing and packing firms around the city and out towards Wisbech and March run stores with a different set of kit. Racking that is plastic coated or galvanised for wash down areas, plastic pallets, pallet scales, stretch wrap machines, roll cages and powered pallet trucks that spend their lives on wet floors. The fixed handling plant, conveyors and sortation, comes out as well when a packhouse closes or a retailer moves its contract.
These sales have two sides to them. The food grade racking and the plastic pallets suit other food firms in the Fens, and the rest is ordinary warehouse equipment. We lot the packing line so it can go as one or in pieces. Rural packhouses often sit down a single track lane, so we check the approach, the gateway and the turning space before collection days are agreed, and the catalogue says what vehicle the yard takes.
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 Peterborough
- We print at Fengate and store paper on reel racking. Does that sell as warehouse equipment?
Yes, though it needs describing as what it is. Reel racking, roll racking and the clamp attachments that go with them are specialist, and the buyers are other printers, packaging converters and paper merchants rather than general warehouse operators. We list the racking with its reel diameters and load ratings and put it in front of that trade. Pallet racking, pallet trucks and the despatch equipment from the same site sell to the wider market alongside it.
- Our lease on a shed at Alwalton ends at the March quarter day. When should the sale close?
About two weeks before, so the collection window and the racking removal finish with a few days to spare for cleaning and the landlord's inspection. Working back from a late March end, the sale would close mid month, bidding would open a fortnight before that, and the shed wants cataloguing a week or so earlier. That puts the first call in late January or early February. Later is possible, though the margin comes off the days the buyer's racking crew has to work in.
More questions about warehouse equipment