Challenge
A major aerospace and defense manufacturing company with facilities worldwide was in the process of reinvesting in production lines for turbine blades. In order to make space for this business innovation, the company needed to acquire new equipment and dispose of a small number of high-value machining assets deemed to be surplus or idle. There was a slim time window with just a few weeks allocated to sell the machines and install the new equipment. This required a rapid sale and disposition process. The manufacturer needed to bring in a third party to direct this project for success.
Solution
The company chose to partner with Liquidity Services. The Liquidity Services team proceeded to catalog the large collection of assets and rapidly deployed the capability for online auctions to move the items directly into the transparent sales and marketing process. This process included:
- Compliance with an aggressive timescale from listing to cash collection and asset removal.
- Project execution driven by client directive to maximize value recovered for the assets.
- Removal of five high-value machine tools (high-precision equipment for aerospace/defense sectors).
Results
Working collaboratively with the client, Liquidity Services provided an extensive marketing plan for the client’s assets. Upon implementation of the plan, there was great excitement from buyers across the globe for the sale of the assets. All of the costly assets went into extended bidding time through the online auction process, resulting in a 45% increase over expected asset sales value. This was 75% more than had been offered by the original equipment dealer to buy back the equipment. The transitional plan was executed seamlessly and within a three-week period, the assets were cleared from the site, allowing the new turbine production lines to be prepped for manufacturing capacity. All assets were sold at a total value of $675,000 and the company was able to proceed without delay on new initiatives as a result.