Auctioneer to generate 200 jobs after site purchase

The auctioneer will invest £15 million with the purchase of the former Dart Products Europe site in Cradley Heath.

The 350,000 sq ft site will be the largest of John Pye’s seven retail sites across the UK and mainland Europe.

Plans include the creation of an auction facility with 50 salerooms which will support growing stock levels in a central hub.

Adam Pye, managing director at John Pye & Sons said: “Due to a large increase in stock levels and demand for our services from our clients across the whole business due to performance, in-house learning and innovations plus an increasing number of large insolvency instructions, we need more space to fulfil the evolving demands of our client base.

“This new site located in the West Midlands is in a strategic position in the country, so has huge benefits from a logistics point of view. Its size means we can take on more client stocks, hold more auctions and the location will contribute to our commitment to carbon reduction and sustainability by lowering transport emissions.”

For the year ending to the end of July, the business had a record year with auction receipts hitting £119m and turnover reaching £45m, up 36 per cent on the previous year.

New bidder registrations were also up 90 per cent year on year. The results came off the back of John Pye being appointed by administrators to manage the sale of stock on behalf of several high-profile insolvencies, including homeware and furniture designers MADE.COM, cyclist equipment firm, Moore Large & Co and high street furniture retailer, The Sofa Workshop.

John Pye worked with Mark Lewis at Browne Jacobson and the team at NatWest Bank to broker the deal. The site was exchanged in January and is expected to open in the second quarter of 2024.