Auctions are no longer seen as a places to send low-value items. Since the global downturn in 2008, when OEMs stopped manufacturing new machines, auctions were the place where contactors, civils companies and hire specialists went to look for good, well maintained, late, low-hours machines when replenishing their stock. Today, the same holds true. The experience of attending big plant and machinery sales is like visiting a super dealership, a ‘one stop shop’ where every make and model of machine or piece of equipment can be seen in one place.
“This offers the buyer choice and access to any bit of kit that buyer may be searching for,” says Derek Bleakley, general manager, Euro Auctions, Dubai.
Derek Bleakley, general manager, Euro Auctions, Dubai.
As a global auctioneer of construction machinery, agricultural equipment and industrial plant, Euro Auctions conducts over 60 major unreserved auctions every year. Operating from 10 permanent auction sites in eight countries on four continents, including the UAE, Euro Auctions markets equipment to buyers and sellers in over 95 countries.
“The makes and models on show at all Euro Auctions sales, offer excellent choice, ranging in years, varying in number of hours and number of owners, giving the buyer access to many types of the same machine, enabling buyers to find machines that match their budget. Now with robust online bidding platforms for all Euro Auctions sales, buyers around the globe have even more choice, and can participate in any one of the 60 global sales each year,” says Bleakley.
Euro Auctions sells over 90,000 lots each year from its 10 permanent operating bases around the globe. With total global sales of $663 million, a high percentage of all sales are now transacted online, equating to 43% of all sales, and 59% of all bidders, showing the popularity of internet bidding and buying. Euro Auctions biggest regular sale is held in the UK, where over 5,000 plus pieces of exceptional equipment go under the hammer over three days, with one lot sold every 20 seconds, achieving a hammer value of over $55 million at each sale, which again is well supported online.
“Rental companies also have strong relationships with specialists like Euro Auctions repeatedly trusting the reach, the customer base and the marketing power to attract buyers who are prepared to pay decent prices for well-maintained stock, enabling them to raise funds to buy new, upgrading their inventory,” says Bleakley.
Euro Auctions also organises bespoke ‘off-site’ heavy machinery sales around in the word. The term ‘off-site sale’ refers to an auction away from the infrastructure of the permanent sales sites that Euro Auctions operates from, selling instead from the client’s premises, or yard, or at a neutral site, chosen for ease of access and infrastructure. Customers for off-site sales include owner operators retiring their businesses, plant hire company’s rotating stock, liquidators forcing a sale, or contractors moving surplus stock. A recent landmark off-site sale organised by Euro Auctions was the world’s largest mobile crane sale, when a stock of 127 mobile cranes were sold in six hours, on an airport runway in the UK, with a final hammer price of $38 million.
Bleakley breaks down a successful sale into five components.
- Inventory, valuing and cataloguing all equipment to be sold: in the case of distress sales, working with liquidators may include the repatriation of equipment that was out ‘on hire’.
- Marketing: attracting buyers to the sale, marketing globally and securing registrations.
- Hosting of the physical sale on the ground, on the day, with bidders registering at the sale, or bidding world-wide via the internet.
- Financials: receiving money from buyers and paying the sellers.
- Shipping the equipment to the buyer, wherever that may be, anywhere in the world.
Euro Auctions has scheduled its Dubai auction events for 2020 on the following dates: 9 March, 15 June, 14 September, and 7 December.
“The Euro Auctions permanent sale site in Dubai serves the Middle East and Africa, with a full calendar of physical sales. Consignors continue to supply good quality machinery to each sale and buyer numbers are increasing, sale on sale. All Euro Auction sales are ‘unreserved’ and when the hammer goes down, that item is sold,” says Bleakley.
