Auctioneer is paid £300k for selling Wilko assets

A NOTTINGHAM auctioneer has made more than £300,000 from selling assets from the collapsed Wilko store chain, including tractors and boxes of washing up liquid.

Auction house John Pye & Sons, which is based in New Basford, was appointed last year by administrators Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) to manage the sale of equipment and machinery from the Nottinghamshire company’s vast distribution centres at its Worksop headquarters and in Newport, Wales.

A Companies House document, submitted by PWC to update creditors on the sale of former Wilko assets, showed that John Pye had been paid £237,858 in time costs and £63,163 in other payments for disposing of the failed retailer’s goods and equipment as of March 6.

PWC further detailed it had received £1.17m from the sales of “fixtures and fittings” during John Pye’s auctions. The administrators stated they expected a further £1.05m from auction sales through the Nottingham firm, with these being the last asset sales to be completed using the auctioneer.

John Pye previously explained it would be selling everything from

Godswill baling presses, waste compactors and conveyor systems to tractors, roll cages, access equipment, and photographic studios. Charles Loake, associate director of John Pye & Sons Ltd, said: “Auction sales up to the present have demonstrated exceptional performance, drawing substantial interest from a broad spectrum of the UK business landscape.

“This interest spans across various sectors, ranging from listed retail giants to individual entrepreneurs operating as sole traders. The sales to date stand as a testament to our marketing proficiency and market intelligence, as well as the strength and diversity of our buyer base, which is rapidly approaching the milestone of one million registered buyers.”