Wilsons Auctions is an auction network headquartered in Belfast with branches spread across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It sells construction machinery, commercial vehicles, cars and recovered goods. For a buyer in Poland one thing matters above all: the same name covers yards in three different customs situations, so before you start bidding, check which branch the lot physically sits in.
Where the yards are
The head office is at 22 Mallusk Road, Newtownabbey, near Belfast. Other branches include Portadown in Craigavon, Dublin at Kingswood Interchange on the Naas Road, Glasgow with a yard on Kilwinning Road in Dalry, and in England and Wales among others Newport, Telford, Oxford, Maidstone, Leigh, Widnes, West Bromwich, Stoke, Newcastle, Gateshead and Queensferry. The company describes itself as the largest independent auction business in the UK and Ireland. Wilsons Auctions Limited is also authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as a credit broker, which follows from its own legal notice.
Three customs situations under one name
The distinction that drives cost and lead time:
- England, Scotland, Wales. A straightforward import from outside the EU: export declaration in the UK, import declaration in Poland, duty and import VAT according to the tariff code.
- Northern Ireland. Separate rules apply, arising from the arrangements governing trade with Northern Ireland. We do not assume in advance how an individual consignment will fall out; we settle it with the customs agency before the purchase, because the document set depends on it. The background is in our article on transport to Belfast and Northern Ireland.
- Republic of Ireland. Dublin is inside the European Union, so the move to Poland is an intra-EU carriage with no import clearance. What changes instead is the route: either a direct ferry to the continent, or a run across Great Britain under a transit procedure, which we cover under the land bridge and the T2 procedure.
What is sold
The calendar carries auctions of construction and industrial equipment, sales of vans and four-wheel drives, car auctions, and sales of recovered goods and assets from public bodies. Unusual sales appear too, such as an auction of transport museum exhibits. For logistics this means one lot may be a wheeled excavator and the next a pallet of tools, and each needs a different vehicle and a different description on the consignment note.
What to settle before bidding
- The exact branch holding the lot, not the town in the auction headline.
- Buyer registration conditions, the buyer’s premium and the payment method. These are set by the terms of the individual sale and differ between auctions; we do not quote them from memory.
- The removal deadline and whether storage charges start once it passes.
- Whether the yard provides loading, and with what equipment.
- The full document set for the machine or vehicle, including the registration document for road vehicles.
Collection and consolidation
For a single heavy machine we send a dedicated vehicle. For several smaller lots, or purchases from two branches, a single collection run and consolidation come into play, which we describe in our article on collecting from several suppliers. If the goods need to wait for a batch to be completed, or need repacking before the journey, we use our own warehouse in Milton Keynes, where we handle pallet receipt and release, short-term storage, cross-docking, repacking and cargo inspection and recovery. Details are in the description of the Milton Keynes warehouse.
What we do
We support the bidding from the logistics side, price carriage before the purchase, collect from the yard and arrange clearance with the customs agencies we work with regularly. We do not bid on a client’s behalf with our own funds and we do not guarantee the technical condition of the equipment bought. If a machine turns out to be incomplete or damaged at loading, we photograph it and enter reservations on the consignment note, because that is the only document that counts afterwards.
Sources
- Wilsons Auctions: list of branches across the UK and Ireland
- Wilsons Auctions: auction calendar and lot locations
Buying in Belfast, Dublin or at one of the English branches? Send the branch and the lot number through our contact form and we will tell you which customs route applies and what carriage costs. See also our guide to the auction market.
