News

End of Road

Paul Cooper, Operations Director, CJM Asset Management

Thousands of pounds worth of contractors’ plant and machinery is to go under the hammer in North Lincolnshire following the collapse of a Doncaster-area road building company.

South Yorkshire Road Specialists Limited went under last month. The liquidators – CRG Insolvency and Financial Recovery of Grimsby – who are now handling the company’s affairs, have ordered the transfer of machines, vehicles and plant from the firm’s Barnby Dun headquarters to the Scunthorpe base of industrial auctioneers CJM Asset Management.

The equipment is to go under the hammer at an auction on Tuesday June 13th.

CJM director Paul Cooper said: “The most valuable item we have been sent from South Yorkshire Road Specialists – and probably the most valuable item in the sale – is a 2004 JCB 3CX excavator that is expected to make around £20,000 at auction.”

“A19 tonne Case Poclain tracked excavator will probably make £10,000 - £12,000 and a Caterpillar ride-on road roller that we rate at £5,000 - £6,000.”

“We’ve also been sent 3 pick-up trucks and we are currently in the process of locating a Blaw-Knox paver, a tarmac laying machine that was out on hire at the time of the firm’s closure. Assuming that’s brought back in time it will also be included in the sale.”

The auction will also include a fleet of vans that are being sold off following another company failure, that of Cooking and Heating Limited, a company based in Hull and Grimsby but which operated on a national basis.

Mr. Cooper said: “The firm specialised in supplying fires, fireplaces and cooking equipment for the domestic market. It had salerooms in New Cleveland Street in Hull and Freeman Street in Grimsby, although recently a considerable amount of its business involved Internet sales.”

“The firm went into administration three weeks ago.”

“Trading conditions in the fireplace market are clearly very tough at the moment. Cooking and Heating are the third fireplace retailer in Grimsby that we’ve dealt with for insolvency practitioners in the last two months.”

“The administrators have instructed us to sell off the firm’s fleet of vehicles – six 2003 Iveco vans – immediately. Meanwhile we’re currently processing claims from suppliers for goods that have been delivered but not paid for and when that’s done we anticipate holding an auction of the remaining stock, including display fireplaces, on the premises in Hull later in the month.”

In all Tuesday’s sale extends to 500 lots and includes IT and office equipment, engineering and woodworking machinery, tools, good quality UPVC window manufacturing equipment and two ride-on floor scrubbers, part of a range of industrial cleaning equipment that has been repossessed by a finance company.

The viewing sessions for the auction are on Monday (12th June) 1pm-7pm and on Tuesday morning from 8.30am until the start of the sale at 10 am. The vehicles and other outside lots are to be sold at Noon. Catalogues are available from CJM or can be downloaded free of charge from the firm’s website: www.cjmasset.com

For further information or comment please contact Paul Cooper at CJM Asset Management on 01724 334411.            

David Newman, Newman Walker Associates, 2nd June 2006.