Overview

Askham Bryan College announced plans to close the Newton Rigg site at Penrith in 2020. We were engaged to undertake a total site clearance of the college campus, a large site with multiple departments. Assets included farming and agricultural equipment, engineering machinery, commercial vehicles, ground care tools and general college equipment.

Our Objectives

> Achieve the highest financial return for the sale of surplus equipment

> Provide auction and clearance services with a single point of contact

> Sell the equipment whilst supporting a range of local SME’s and charities

> Evidence the social, environmental and economic benefits of reusing the equipment

> Ensure the entire site was cleared by September 2021

How we did it

Newton Rigg College was a huge site with many different departments and courses being ran, including boarding accommodation. There were over 1,000 individual lots so the planning process started months in advance and consisted of two weeks of lotting, two days of viewings and 3 weeks of the auction catalogue being marketed and advertised across a range of platforms.

Two auctions were ran and collections was managed by our NCM operations team as hundreds of buyers collected their items over a 3 week period before a final ‘mop-up’ auction was completed to capture some smaller and valuable items on reduced reserves.

Marketing

Our marketing campaign ran across a number of platforms including Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Email campaigns and Auction Industry advertising platforms. Our marketing approach led to a huge return on investment for us and our client:

Impressions = 195,000

Ad Reach = 66,000

Email Reach = 80,000

Auction Advertising Reach = 500,000+

Result

The Newton Rigg College auction was simulcast across multiple platforms providing global reach for bidders. The auction lots achieved over 8,000 bids and over 280,000 auction views, with 84% of all lots sold, raising over £300,000 at hammer value.

Sustainability

Alongside the financial benefits, it’s important to demonstrate the proven environmental gains and advantages to the local community and economy by reusing surplus assets. The result is a tangible set of outcomes that can be used to help validate corporate, social and environmental responsibilities.

Helping Communities

The auction has allowed surplus assets to be re-purposed – growing companies, launching new business ventures, helping communities and charities across the UK and beyond. The type of assets and equipment included in the Newton Rigg College auction are especially important to third sector non-profits.

Buyer Stories

It’s important for us to document some ‘good news’ buyer stories from our auctions and whereas we normally collect these in written format, on this occasion we had a camera-man handy!

You can call our team on 01302 898 260 or request a call back on the button below.

How can Site Clearance services be more environmentally friendly?

When a site or building needs emptying due to a refurbishment, relocation or business closure there are considerable costs involved in clearing the equipment and assets. If the equipment, assets and building fixtures end up as landfill waste it’s not only expensive, but also terrible for the environment. NCM Auctions work with businesses and organisations to run an online auction for the equipment before a clearance company is brought in to clear the site. Our auctions typically see over 90% of the listed equipment sold, which does three things for our clients.

• Raises unexpected money
• Reduces clearance costs
• Reuses equipment in a sustainable way

How to reduce Site Clearance costs?

You won’t be surprised to learn that site clearance costs become less expensive as the amount of items that need clearing are reduced. This is why it is always best to run an auction before you get a final quote for site clearance. Because we sell over 90% of the items and equipment, your clearance bill will be massively reduced. Our clients generate considerable funds from their auctions which not only covers the clearance bills, but our clients are always left with a profit.

An example of a recent client story is from a closed down college campus where they’d been given a £20,000 clearance quote. We ran a late notice online auction, listing over 300 items and raising £44,000 in the process. This reduced their site clearance costs by 75% and left them in considerable profit.

Why is this environmentally friendly site clearance?

Our whole ethos is based around diverting waste from landfill and reducing the requirement for recycling by reusing equipment. Most people view recycling as the best option, but reusing equipment should be everyone’s aim as it’s the greenest way to dispose of equipment and also benefits small, local businesses and charities who get great quality second-hand equipment at fantastic prices.

In summary:

• Reusing is better than recycling
• We raise money whilst clearing your equipment
• Small businesses and charities get great second-hand items

How does a Site Clearance Auction work?

The process is transparent, cost-free and 100% managed by our experienced operations and marketing in-house auction team. We can work with a few weeks notice, or plan for months in advance to ensure you achieve the maximum financial return for your equipment and items. Following an initial free consultation by phone, we will ask you to send us an equipment list so we can see how many, and what type of equipment you have to sell. We complete a desktop valuation for your review before sending in our experienced valuations and lotting team to confirm the final auction list and take pictures and descriptions of the equipment so we can build an online auction catalogue.

The auction then runs for a period of time in-line with your timeline, after which we organise the payment and collections process with all the buyers. Once all the auction lots have been collected, we transfer you the funds raised.

What equipment sells well on auction?

The short answer is that there is a buyer for everything, and we have hundreds of thousands of active buyers who regularly purchase second-hand equipment and building fixtures and fittings. Naturally, the higher value items are the main draw for our auction marketing.

We regularly work with the following sectors and projects:

• Factories and Offices
• Manufacturing plants
• Restaurants
• Hotels
• Stadiums and iconic venues
• Colleges, schools and universities
• Company relocations, mergers and site closures
• Entire site clearance or department clearances

Top selling used equipment and assets include:

• – Kitchen and restaurant equipment
• – Vehicles, plant and machinery
• – Engineering and woodwork machinery
• – Hotel furniture, fixtures and fittings
• – Playgrounds and rides
• – Exhibition and pop-up stands
• – Gym equipment
• – Please call us to discuss other assets

Who have we worked with before?

Over the last few years we have sold equipment for DHL, Twitter, Sunbelt, Compass Group, Premier League Football Clubs, hotel groups and hundreds of colleges and councils. We deliver a 20 minute zoom presentation when we speak to new clients where we explain how the process works and we also share some industry specific case studies with you.

A bit about our marketing

Where our clients can give us early access to the venue, we always try to produce an auction launch video. Below is an example from when we worked with Twitter UK to sell their office furniture and catering equipment. We tell buyers what the auction is about, what can be bought and when it will be live. We then follow up with a sales and marketing campaign across traditional auction and online advertising channels.

Sustainability Focused Buyer Stories

At NCM Auctions we are always in pursuit of innovative ways to improve our service. Our clients tell us that sustainability and environmental practises are extremely important to them, so being able to display how we divert second-hand equipment from landfill and give it a second life is really important to them. With this in mind we have started to produce ‘Buyer Stories’ where we interview buyers on our collection days to find out where the equipment is going to be reused and how it will benefit the organisations that have purchased it. Have a watch below where we speak to Steve Scott from YMCA Lakeside to find out how his organisation benefitted from buying multiple hotel furniture items from one of our auctions.

You can call our team on 01302 898 260 or request a call back on the button below.

COSMOPOLITAN HOTEL

• Location: Leeds
• Categories: Hotel, catering, hospitality, accommodation, furniture
• Ends: 12th January 2022

TWITTER UK

• Location: Doncaster
• Categories: Catering, restaurant, office, furniture
• Ends: 14th January 2022

YORKSHIRE COAST COLLEGE

• Location: Scarborough
• Categories: Engineering, college, industrial, catering, furniture
• Ends: 11th January 2022

If you’d like to sell or buy with us, please get in touch.

If your College, University or School is refurbishing, relocating, merging or closing a site – we’ll work for you to raise capital by selling your equipment via online auction

The Yorkshire-based auctioneers have announced they are working with Twitter UK to deliver a sustainable asset disposal channel for their London offices.

As part of a refurbishment of their UK headquarters, tech giant Twitter has engaged the services of NCM Auctions to manage the disposal of surplus office furniture, catering appliances and equipment from their Soho offices.

A proud disruptor in the auction industry, NCM Auctions has an established track record for delivering sustainable and environmentally sound asset management and disposable services across all sectors, from engineering and manufacturing to education and real estate, technology, hospitality and the public sector.

After an initial meeting to discuss Twitter UK’s objectives, NCM demonstrated how they would provide a complete end-to-end solution for the time-sensitive project. To remove and auction the surplus assets, maximise revenue for Twitter, while generating significant and demonstrable benefits for the environment and community.

Andy Smith, Executive Director, praised Twitter for the progressive approach:

“Wrongly, many clients believe a sustainable approach comes with more cost, time and complexity. But with many of our projects, it’s usually self-funding, and we still achieve maximum revenue for assets at auction. Financial return with the combined CSR benefits is a win for every organisation and helps drive the circular economy – it’s great to see Twitter taking this approach, and we’re hopeful this project will lead to many more like it.”

Andy Smith, Executive Director

Emma McSkelly, CEO and Founder of NCM, added:

“As a company, we’re excited to be working with the Twitter UK team and adding such a prestigious global brand to our list of clients. It’s encouraging to see such a big corporate client understanding the difference we can make by offering a disposal method that returns revenue while doing the right thing for the environment and community.

I’m sure this auction will generate lots of interest, and who knows, there may even be some one-of-a-kind Twitter memorabilia in there!”

Emma McSkelly, CEO and Founder of NCM

The online auction for Twitter UK will start on 16th November and run until the 7th December 2021. Interested bidders can pre-register now to be notified when the auction catalogue goes live.

Production and Manufacturing Online Auction

In September 2021, NCM Auctions delivered an exclusive online auction for Kostal, following their plant closure in Rotherham. The online auction included the entire contents of the facility including assets such as CNC’s, injection moulding machines, heavy duty engineering equipment, cranes, tools, racking, catering equipment, office furniture and much more.

Project highlights:

• 397 lots
• 400 registered bidders
• 74,851 page views
• 4,088 total bids

To find out more about this project and to learn how NCM Auctions can help your business sell surplus equipment and assets, please request a call back via the contact button below.

Explainer Video | How to collect your purchases direct from site

We’ve been asked so many times about how the collections process works on site once an auction ends that we decided to make a video about it. Once the auction ends, you will be contacted by our operations team to organise your collections appointment, but watch the video below to get a good idea on what to do and bring when you get to site.

If you would like to speak to our operations team about your purchase please CONTACT US

Video client testimonial | EPIC Doncaster | Marcus Isman-Egal

Listen to Marcus from EPIC Doncaster, part of Doncaster Children’s Services Trust, talk about how NCM Auctions have supported their recent office move.

We are always happy to hear from charities who need our help, so please get in touch via our CONTACT page and we’ll always do our best to help where we can.

Delivering CSR Objectives

What immediately comes to mind when considering selling assets via auction is the revenue generated. But actually, selling with us via auction offers so much more than just a quick financial uplift.

Working with many large organisations, we recognise the importance of adding value to every partnership. Working with us as a way to dispose of your surplus assets compliments your sustainability objectives.

We prioritise efficiency and sustainability and we endeavour to minimise our environmental impact. We can help you to responsibly manage the social, environmental and economic impact of the asset disposal process by:

• Offering a proven method of diverting waste from landfill, whilst feeding a range of downstream supply chains
• Helping to grow both local and global business communities
• Supporting business start-ups
• Supporting community groups, social enterprises and charities
• All whilst returning you the unrealised capital held within our assets