Ex-sweet factory is auction flop

A former sweet factory near West Bromwich town centre, earmarked to become an apartment block, failed to attract a single bid at a high-profile property auction.

Sela House, for decades the home of internationally renowned cough sweet and humbug makers Sela, went under the hammer for the second time in 12 months yesterday afternoon.

The red-brick factory, which was a warehouse for brewers Mitchells & Butlers before the sweetmakers took it over in 1922, was sold for £330,000 at an auction in March and has since been granted planning permission to be turned into a seven-home block.

But at the auction organised by town-based property specialists Bond Wolfe at Aston Villa's Holte Suite yesterday, not one single bid was made for the property.

A guide price of £425,000-£450,000 had been set for the Thynne Street building vacated by the historic sweet-making firm earlier this year after it relocated operations to Wales.

Despite the change of use permission that was granted in May by Sandwell Council planning officers, auctioneers were unable to coax a single offer out of a crowd of roughly 300 property investors at the auction, even when opening as low as the previous sale price.