Britannia AuctionsWarehouse and logistics equipment sales in Stoke-on-Trent
Distribution has grown along the A500 and A50 through Stoke-on-Trent, and the sheds at Trentham Lakes and Etruria Valley hold the racking, reach trucks, conveyors and dock equipment that go with it. The older warehousing belongs to the pottery trade. Tableware and sanitaryware factories keep large finished goods stores across the six towns, racked for pallets of boxed ware, with counterbalance trucks and stretch wrappers by the despatch door.
We sell equipment from both by online timed auction. Access roads, hard standing, turning space and door dimensions are checked when we walk the site, and where the site takes an articulated lorry the sale runs from there with a viewing day and agreed collection days. Where a store is small or the building is being handed back quickly, the lots can be collected to our own premises. Bidding is online, and the trade in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Crewe is within easy reach. Use the contact form to tell us what you have and when it needs to be gone.
Finished goods stores at the potteries
A pottery's warehouse is a big open store with pallet racking to the eaves, a mezzanine for samples and seconds, a stretch wrapper by the door and trucks that have handled boxed ware for years without much strain. When a factory closes or moves production, the store empties last, after the kilns have stopped and the last orders have shipped. That makes it a natural end point for the sale.
We catalogue the racking by run, with frame heights, beam lengths, bay counts and ratings, and it comes down once the stock has gone, on days agreed with you and at the buyer's cost. Counterbalance trucks and powered pallet trucks go with hours and thorough examination reports, and chargers as matched lots. Pallet scales, roll cages, pallet trucks and stillages make small lots that suit other manufacturers around the six towns. If the kiln and factory equipment is being sold as well, the store goes into the same auction, and buyers see everything on one viewing day.
Corridor sheds with room to load
The distribution sheds along the A500 and A50 were built with marshalling yards and dock doors, and what a particular yard takes is one of the things the site visit settles. Bidders on racking and reach trucks are pricing collection as well as the equipment, so the loading arrangements go into the catalogue alongside the frame heights and the hour readings.
We propose a timetable for contract loss and lease end sales and work back from the handover. Cataloguing happens while the stock is still moving out. The auction would close a week or two before handover, with collection in two windows, trucks and loose equipment first and racking second, agreed with you. Junctions 15 and 16 of the M6 put the sites within reach of the trade in Crewe and Stafford, and the A50 brings in Uttoxeter and Derby. Timing is the part that most often goes wrong, so call early.
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 Stoke-on-Trent
- Our tile warehouse in Fenton has racking rated for heavy pallets. Does that make a difference to buyers?
It does. Heavy duty pallet racking with high beam ratings is what building products merchants and other manufacturers need, and a firm storing that kind of weight cannot use light retail racking instead. We list the beam ratings, frame heights, bay counts and frame depths from the load notices, and we photograph the notices themselves. If the racking has been inspected recently, that report goes in the catalogue too. Buyers then know what they are bidding for.
- We have a lot of pallets of seconds and slow stock as well as the equipment. Can you sell the stock too?
Yes. Stock and equipment can go into the same auction or into two sales a week apart, depending on how much there is. Pallets of boxed ware suit traders and discount retailers, and selling the stock first is usually the sensible order, so that the racking can come down once the last pallet has gone. We catalogue stock by pallet or by range, with counts and photographs. One instruction covers both, and the same person handles it all.
More questions about warehouse equipment