Britannia AuctionsWarehouse and logistics equipment sales in Swindon
The car plant at South Marston has gone and the supply chain that fed it is still working out what to keep. Sequencing centres, component stores and packaging suppliers around the site held stillages, racks and trucks sized for one customer's line, and as they close, move or change trade that equipment comes to market. The site itself is being redeveloped for logistics, so the buyers for it are often the firms moving in next door.
Swindon's other warehouses are more usual. Distribution sheds at Blagrove and Symmetry Park by junction 16 with standard racking and reach trucks, and pharmaceutical and electronics firms on the north and east sides with controlled stores that need careful description. We sell all of it by online timed auction, on site or from our own premises, with one person handling your sale from the first visit to settlement. Use the contact form to tell us what you have.
Supplier stores after the car plant
A sequencing centre or a tier one supplier holds stock in returnable packaging. Steel stillages, post pallets, plastic totes, the flow racks that fed them to the line, and tow tractors and powered pallet trucks that moved them. When the customer's line stops, most of it has no second use in the building it is in, though it is ordinary equipment elsewhere. Component makers across the M4 corridor and up the A419 run on stillages and totes by the hundred, and fabricators and stockholders use the racking.
We count returnable packaging by type and size and check whose it is, because the vehicle maker often owns part of it. Tow tractors and trucks are listed with hours and inspection reports. Flow racks and stillage racks suit the trade in Chippenham, Cirencester and Faringdon, and dealers bid online from anywhere. Whether an articulated lorry can load from the dock is checked at the site visit, and the collection window is agreed from what we find.
Pharma stores and the validation file
A pharmaceutical warehouse is a controlled space, and its equipment is sold with the records. Temperature mapped racking areas, monitored cold rooms, bin shelving with location control, pallet scales and label printers at despatch, and a reach truck or two that never leave the building. That kit belongs with other pharmaceutical and medical firms, contract packers and laboratories, and the calibration certificates, the mapping reports and the service history are what a bidder in that trade asks for.
We catalogue those stores with the paperwork listed lot by lot and keep the validated equipment separate from the standard racking, which sells to the general trade. Sites of this kind usually have gated yards and security rules, so we run viewing and collection by appointment and agree the process with your site manager before the sale opens. Standard racking, trucks and dock equipment from the same building go through the normal route, with the racking coming down last.
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 Swindon
- Our unit at Kembrey Park has a lease ending at the September quarter day. When do we need to instruct you?
Late July would be a sensible target. That leaves August for the site visit, cataloguing and two weeks of bidding, and the first half of September for collection, racking removal and making good before the landlord's inspection at the end of the month. How quickly collection runs depends on what the yard and the door take, which we check on the visit. The margin goes on the racking, because the buyer's crew needs a clear floor and several days for a unit of any size.
- Our conveyors run on a warehouse management system with its own servers and scanners. Does the IT sell with it?
The scanners, printers, terminals and the wireless kit can be offered, either with the conveyors or as separate IT lots. Software licences often do not transfer and the servers hold your data, so we ask you to wipe them or keep them back. We describe the conveyor line as mechanical equipment with its control panels and note which parts of the control system are included. A firm fitting out a shed nearby would normally run it on their own system.
More questions about warehouse equipment