Henry’s yard was such chaos that most auction houses would have turned the job down, it is said.

After Henry Construction Projects collapsed in June, administrators from FRP Advisory turned to Euro Auctions and Hilco Valuation Services to appraise and dispose of assets.

Assets were disposed of in two sales. The first being an online sale on 6th July for equipment held in the Henry Construction yard in Hounslow, with additional equipment, from construction sites around central London transported to Leeds for a live sale in early August.

The hammer total for all assets was £1.6m, which included Henry owned items in addition to machinery assets on third party finance, working with six independent funders.

Chris Osborne, the Euro Auctions sales manager responsible for this sale, said: “This was a challenging project, and it was soon evident this sale would not be without its difficulties. The first inventory was in the Henry yard where the majority of assets, small tools and materials were stored in chaotic order, with conditions being such that many auction houses would not entertain being involved with this sale.

“We were faced with a few options. Either the items in the yard could be sold ‘as-is’ in a job lot, or we could take some time and effort to sort and catalogue all lots in an orderly inventory, which is how Euro Auctions like to operate. We opted for the latter option, lining up lots in typical Euro Auctions fashion, and our painstaking efforts paid off, returning to FRP double the initial estimated sale valuation.”

“The second inventory included over 200 pieces of plant and machinery recovered from in excess of 35 active Henry construction sites in central London that needed collecting and repatriating before being sent to the live August sale in Leeds.

“This was one of the most difficult aspects of preparing for this sale, where access to sites in and around central London was difficult, where permits were required to close roads and load machinery, where items were on high-rise construction sites and needed craning down. We liaised with multiple developers, security firms and contractors working across all of the sites to enable the recovery of assets.  In four weeks, we recovered over 200 items including excavators, rollers, dumpers, manlifts, concrete pumps, generators, bowsers, plus much more smaller attachments.”

More Henry equipment is still being rounded up from sites and is set to feature in Euro Auctions’ September auction.

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