Speedy Cash Convertor

3 April 2009

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The Great Speedy Sale was held over three days in early March in Melton Mowbray. As our series of illustrations demonstrate, Speedy’s first ever auction was organised on a massive scale and the hirer reports that it achieved its target to generate £5m in cash from excess stock.

The auction attracted great attention throughout our industry and many hirers were in attendance in the hope of picking up a bargain. When it came to the contractors’ plant to be auctioned, there were few
bargains to be had as sale prices were, generally, considerably higher than most had expected. Typical values for a variety of contractors’ plant comprised;

• 2005 JCB 801 minis on expanding tracks with ROPS, blade and piped for breaker £4,300-£4,600
• 2004 Takeuchi TB108 minis with ROPS, blade and piped for breaker £2,800
• 2001 Caterpillar 302.5 mini on rubber tracks and 3 buckets £6,800
• 2005/2006 Thwaites 1 tonne hydrostatic high tip dumpers c/w ROPS £3,600-£4,800
• 2000-2002 Benford TV1200 double drum rollers c/w ROPS £2,600-£3,700 Crescent

Lighting towers also attracted decent prices, with three and four year old machines selling for £2,500 each. A batch of eight GenSet VT1 units, with 600-1000 hours on two year old machines, were sold for £3,900 each. Brandon was the successful bidder and spent £50,000 at the auction. According to Buyer Bob Baber, “we had money to invest on better quality kit and we ‘cherry picked’ certain items. We also took the opportunity to pick up some more specialist equipment that other bidders did not seem to recognise as being available at bargain prices.”

Speedy’s ‘fleet cleansing’ approach was also evident from the number of older, folding lighting towers that were disposed of. Typically, five and six year old SMC TL35 units were selling for £500-£700. The tools sale also achieved good prices. Mixed pallet loads of assorted power tools, much of which could more accurately be described as scrap, were selling for £400. The batch of six Wacker DPU2440H diesel compaction plates was also sold for £400 each. Clearly, the equipment sold in this section of the auction was a clear
out session, but everything got a price.