News

Paul Cooper, Operations Director

A Ferrari is expected to sell for less than £200 quid when it goes under the hammer at an auction in Scunthorpe next week.

However prospective buyers have been advised that they should forget prancing horses and sleek red bonnets that go on forever. This Ferrari is lime green, has a stubby little bonnet and just two wheels . . . it’s a motorised rotivator!

Auctioneer Paul Cooper of industrial auctioneers CJM Asset Management said: “It is Italian, it does have an engine, albeit just 454 cc, and it does have wheels. After that we start to run out of similarities with the other lot . . . but it is a Ferrari and the new owner will undoubtedly be able to boast a Ferrari in the garage!”

“The luminescent lime green is rather striking. Surprised the Maranello lot missed that one.”

The Ferrari is one of the more unusual entries in what is expected to be the most valuable machinery and equipment auctions ever staged in North Lincolnshire, which includes a huge quantity of professional quality grounds maintenance equipment, from tractors and gang mowers down to dozens of petrol-engined strimmers.

Paul said: “The bulk of the equipment in this sale has come from a large grounds maintenance and tools hire company called Swan Plant Services that has gone into liquidation. The firm was based in Cheshire and had depots in the North East and in Scotland.”

“Following the liquidation a finance company has repossessed a large quantity of grounds maintenance equipment and it has been sent to us for disposal.”

“It includes a lot of heavy duty professional kit ranging from tractors and gang mowers through to zero-turn stand on-power mowers and some specialist machinery such as stump cutters, a decompacter, rotary rakes and so on. We reckon that, at new prices, you’re looking at well over a quarter of a million pounds worth of equipment.”

“On the strength of that entry we circulated information to our retained clients and one of those has entered some valuable farming equipment including two John Deere tractors, a 15 tonne tipping trailer, a baler and a 2004 JCB telescopic loader and a 2003 JCB Fastrac. That’s raised the value of the auction even higher.”

“The bigger equipment will clearly mainly be of interest to professional grounds and parks keeping operations but the sale of the smaller kit . . . cylinder mowers, rotary mowers, strimmers and hedgers . . . does offer the opportunity for private buyers to pick up some professional-quality equipment at what are expected to be pretty keen prices.”

“The auction also includes a quantity of automotive components that have been sent to us after the closure of Car and Commercial Components of Grimsby, hand tools and a little bit of IT equipment and office furniture, including some ultra-modern smoked glass–topped desks that were apparently very expensive when they were made.”

Paul added: “The auction is expected to be a record-breaker. The most valuable previous sale at the Brigg Road saleroom was £112,000. We’re expecting that to be comprehensively smashed on Tuesday.”

In all the auction extends to 800 lots. The public viewing sessions for the auction are on Monday (3rd April) 1am-7pm and on Tuesday morning from 8.30am until the start of the sale at 10 am. 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.