News

Charles Moses FRICS, Managing Director

‘The on-line auction will revolutionise the way plant and machinery are sold,” says Charles Moses, Managing Director of industrial auctioneers CJM Asset Management.

‘On-line auctions are opening up incredible global opportunities for businesses that have even a limited amount of surplus equipment for sale - with a consequent impact on the prices they get.”

‘We anticipate that within a year more than 90% of the auctions that we stage will be on-line.”

The North Lincolnshire-based operation . . . one of the top three industrial auctioneering firms in the country . . . launched its first on-line auctions four weeks ago. The first three sales were on behalf of an engineering company in Middlesex, a scientific laboratory in Birmingham and a contract furniture manufacturer in Cheshire.

The auctions attracted successful bidders not only from all over the UK but also Italy, France, South Africa, India and the Far East.

Mr. Moses said: ”It has been clear for some time that the Internet had serious possibilities for our business. We have been monitoring developments and preparing for this for several years.”

“Towards the end of last year we took the decision that the systems and the technology that are required for this to be successful do now exist, not only in the UK of course but around the world.”

“One of the great beauties of the on-line auction . . . in which kit is put up for sale with a closing date and time . . . is that we do not need to have the volume and value that are necessary in order to attract a crowd to a normal live on-site auction”

“The second on-line auction that we staged involved laboratory equipment and there were just six lots in the sale. We were able to market it on a worldwide basis, whilst keeping the costs to an economic level.”

“It means that assets can be sold in-situ, which is a major plus when we might be talking about machines that weigh ten or twenty tonnes. Moving such equipment to the saleroom in Scunthorpe can be an expensive process and, of course, when they are moved the opportunity to see them in operation is lost.”

“Whilst we operate on a national basis, this development opens up a whole new opportunity for businesses who have got a limited amount of equipment for sale to expose that to a global market. In the past the only viable option was to have that moved to the auction room for inclusion in a larger collective sale.”

He added: “It will have a major impact on our business, although our core service remains much the same. The secret of any successful auction . . . be that on site or on-line . . . is to identify and properly catalogue the assets and then to get them in front of the maximum number of potential buyers.”

“Traditionally the result has been someone standing in front of the rostrum waving a catalogue. Increasingly in the future it is going to be someone hitting a key on a computer literally anywhere in the world.”

For further information or comment please contact Charles Moses at CJM Asset Management on 01724-334411 or e-mail charles.moses@cjmasset.com.