Skip to content
Britannia Auctions Discuss your sale

Selling the equipment when a business retires, closes or moves.

We are a UK auctioneer for machinery, vehicles, stock and equipment. One lathe or a whole factory, we guide you through the sale from the first message to the final payment.

Discuss your sale How a sale works

Big or small, we handle it

Any size of sale

One machine goes into a shared sale with other vendors' lots. A whole site gets an auction of its own. Both get the same attention and the same buyers.

British, and based here

We come to you anywhere in the UK, mainland or islands, and further afield when the sale justifies the trip. Or we collect the assets and sell them from our own premises. Either way you deal with people based here.

A person, not a portal

Someone guides you through the whole thing: what to sell, how, when, and what to expect. We deal with the buyers, the collection and the paperwork. You hand over the list and we take it from there.

Reasons people come to us

All services
  1. Business retirement auctions Selling the machinery, stock and fittings when an owner retires and nobody is taking the business on.
  2. Business closure auctions Turning the contents of a closing business into money before the lease ends and the keys go back.
  3. Surplus equipment sales Selling the machines, tools and kit a working business no longer uses, without disrupting what it still does.
  4. Machinery and engineering auctions CNC machines, lathes, mills, presses and workshop equipment sold to a trade market that knows what they are worth.
  5. Factory and workshop clearance Selling everything on a commercial site and managing its removal so the premises can be handed back clear.
  6. Business relocation and downsizing sales Selling the equipment that will not move to the new premises, timed around the move itself.
  7. Liquidation and insolvency asset sales Sales run on the instruction of administrators, liquidators, lenders and landlords, with the records they need.
  8. Complete site dispersal auctions One sale for the whole site: production machinery, tooling, spares, racking, offices and the vehicles outside.
  9. Stock clearance auctions Surplus inventory, discontinued lines and bulk trade stock sold in lots sized for trade buyers.
  10. Plant and construction equipment auctions Excavators, dumpers, generators, compressors and site equipment sold with the checks plant buyers expect.
  11. Commercial vehicle and fleet auctions Vans, trucks, trailers and whole fleets sold with the paperwork sorted and finance settled.
  12. Warehouse and logistics equipment sales Forklifts, pallet trucks, racking, conveyors and handling equipment from warehouses that are closing or changing.
  13. Catering and hospitality equipment auctions Commercial kitchens, front of house furniture and bar equipment from restaurants, hotels and pubs.
  14. Private treaty sales A negotiated direct sale for a single high value machine or a situation where an open auction is the wrong route.
  15. Collective auctions and single item consignments Smaller quantities and single items placed into a shared sale alongside other vendors' lots.

What a sale looks like

Most sales run the same way whether it is one lathe or a whole factory. We look at what you have, agree the route, catalogue and photograph the lots, run an online timed auction, and manage collection. The buyer pays a premium on top of the hammer price, so our cost to you is agreed up front and taken from the proceeds.

Read the full process

  1. Step 1

    Tell us what you have

    A list, some photos and the address is enough to start. We come back with a view on route, reserves and timing.

  2. Step 2

    We catalogue on site

    Lots are numbered, photographed and described where they stand. You keep working around us if you need to.

  3. Step 3

    The auction runs online

    A timed sale open to trade buyers across the UK and beyond, with a viewing day for anyone who wants to inspect.

  4. Step 4

    Collection and payment

    Buyers clear their lots in an agreed window. We reconcile the sale and pay you the proceeds less our agreed fee.

Where we work

All locations

We sell on site anywhere in the UK, from the south coast to Shetland, and we take on sales outside the UK when it makes sense. Where a visit does not suit, we collect and sell from our own premises. Each area page explains what tends to come to auction locally and which routes suit it.

Guides

All guides

Questions people ask

All questions

Have assets to sell?

Tell us about the sale and we come back with a plain view of the best route and what it is likely to make.

  • What you have
  • Where it is
  • When it needs to go
Discuss your sale

Takes a couple of minutes. No obligation.