Bidders’ battle all part of show
AT Ritchie Bros, they call it “the show”.
“We are an event business,” Ritchie Bros marketing manager David Fanning said. “People come out because we hold the best events in Australia.”
Those events see a parade of used heavy transport, agriculture and construction industry machinery sent “up the ramp” in front of the frenzied bidding action at the main 670-seat auction theatre at the Corio centre.
There is a separate auction theatre for stationary items and a timed auction setup for smaller items under $5000.
The total number of lots on its most recent auction a couple of weeks ago was more than 1400.
And they all sell because there is no reserve price.
“People come to unreserved auctions because that unit will be sold today, ready to work tomorrow,” Mr Fanning said.
The high number of registered buyers — more than 1700 at the last one in Corio — ensures that the selling price is genuine. “It guarantees that’s the market price on the day,” Mr Fanning said.
It’s the bigger items, which can sell in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, that naturally attract the most attention from the hundreds of buyers, dealers and brokers keeping an eye on, or participating in, the action.
On this day, a 10-year-old Caterpillar articulated dump truck that pulled in $267,500 was the highest-valued asset sold.
There was also high interest in the 30 prime movers and heavy demand for an array of construction industry machinery and tipper trucks that are always popular.
Since opening the complex in 2013, Ritchie Bros has sold more than 22,000 pieces of heavy equipment worth more than $340 million to 9000 buyers.
While prospective buyers of what can be a significant investment still like to be able to touch and see the product, Ritchie Bros is seeing a global trend to more online business.
Online registrations accounted for 812, or almost half, of the buyers registered for the Corio auction and Mr Fanning said there were more than 120,000 page views of the auction on its website in the lead-up.
To help cater for the global online trade and to service buyers and sellers in remote areas, the company has bought online platform Iron Planet.
But there is nothing like the atmosphere of a live auction.
Mr Fanning said preauction expectation starts to build as soon as people see the machinery coming in on the 15ha Corio site.
Mr Fanning said the company was seeing demand in the area continue to grow.
It employs 20 permanent staff in Geelong with casuals more than doubling that figure on auction day.