The British machinery auction market splits into four clear segments: construction and materials handling equipment, agricultural machinery, assets from insolvency proceedings, and vehicles. Each segment has different auction houses, different sale formats and different requirements for export to the European Union. This piece is the map of the whole section: start here, then follow the links for the detail.
Construction and materials handling equipment
- Euro Auctions – yards near Leeds at Kellington by Goole and at Dromore in Northern Ireland, and beyond Britain at Mountrath in the Republic of Ireland, Zaragoza, Dormagen and Abu Dhabi.
- Ritchie Bros – the UK base at Maltby near Rotherham, UK and Ireland sales run as timed auctions, plus the IronPlanet platform.
- Wilsons Auctions – a branch network in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and Dublin, that is, on both sides of the EU customs border.
- Morris Leslie – Errol Airfield in Perthshire, Scotland, running timed online sales.
- Thimbleby & Shorland – Reading, Berkshire, contractors plant auctions.
- Brightwells – Easters Court, Leominster, with a dedicated plant and machinery department.
Agricultural machinery
The farm segment has its own map and its own frequently missed customs requirement. We cover it in our articles on the Cheffins sales at Sutton near Ely and in the survey of farm machinery auctions in the UK, where we list among others Clarke & Simpson, Brightwells, Thimbleby & Shorland, Morris Leslie, Stags and Brown & Co. The key difference: a used machine that has worked in agriculture or forestry and carries a tariff code on the high plant health risk list is subject to a phytosanitary border inspection on entry to the Union, needs a phytosanitary certificate from the country of dispatch and must be free from soil and plant debris.
Insolvency and site clearance assets
A separate segment where the goods do not stand in an auction yard but in the unit of a business being wound up, and where the deadline to vacate is often immovable. We cover it in our article on John Pye Auctions and industrial disposals.
Vehicles
- Copart UK – damaged and salvage vehicles, internet-only auctions, damage categories that decide whether a vehicle may be exported whole.
- BCA and Manheim – the country’s two largest vehicle auction networks, selling at their own sites with simultaneous online bidding.
The sale format is part of the cost
Whether bidding is live, timed or internet-only changes when you learn the result and how long the removal window runs. We break this down in our article on auction formats. It is also worth remembering that many houses sell through external platforms, among them BidSpotter.co.uk and i-bidder.com, both owned by Auction Technology Group.
The market consolidates, but not always successfully
Names and owners in this market change, so it pays to check the current position rather than rely on memory. A recent example: the UK competition authority referred the proposed acquisition of Euro Auctions Group by Ritchie Bros for a Phase 2 investigation, the deal did not proceed, and the inquiry was cancelled on 3 May 2022. Both companies operate independently today.
What you will not find in this section
We do not quote buyer’s premiums, removal deadlines, storage charges, opening hours, the number of lots on offer or auction dates. Those are set by the terms of the individual sale, differ between houses and between individual auctions at the same house, and change over time. What we do give is what to look for in the terms and how to turn it into a transport plan.
What we do
We support the bidding from the logistics side, price transport before the purchase, collect equipment from the yard, arrange clearance with the customs agencies we work with regularly, and carry the machine to Poland and onward to Czechia, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary. We do not bid on a client’s behalf with our own funds, we do not finance purchases, we do not guarantee a machine’s technical condition and we do not value it. The basics of importing machinery are in our article on importing used machinery from the UK, and the onward leg into Central Europe in our piece on imports from the UK to Czechia, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary.
Customs clearance and paperwork for a machine bought at auction
Buying is only half the job. The other half is the paperwork and the place where the machine enters the customs territory of the Union — and that decides both the cost and how quickly the machine reaches your yard.
- Clearing a machine in the Netherlands, not Poland
- Customs procedure 42 when importing a machine
- Deferring import VAT in the Netherlands
- Clearing through France: the smart border
- Documents for a machine bought at auction
- Origin of used machinery from the UK
- Serial number and nameplate at customs
- Customs value of a used auction machine
- Who is the importer when an agent buys
Sources
- Euro Auctions: auction calendar and locations
- Ritchie Bros: the Maltby yard
- Wilsons Auctions: branch list
- Cheffins: machinery sales at Sutton near Ely
- John Pye Auctions: locations
- Copart UK: operations centres
- BCA: auction sites
- Manheim UK: auction centres
- CMA: merger inquiry into the acquisition of Euro Auctions Group
- Polish plant health inspectorate: phytosanitary conditions for used agricultural machinery
Know which sale you want to bid in? Send the auction house, the site and the removal date through our contact form and we will price transport and clearance before you make an offer.
