Nine acres of restaurant equipment, sold and cleared in three months.

The challenge

The call came in early April. A family-run restaurant supply business near Austin had been in operation for years, and the property had just been sold. The owner's daughter inherited the contents and had three months to liquidate them.

The contents covered nine acres. Several warehouses totaling 17,000 square feet were full, and the overflow sat outside. There were commercial mixers, ranges and refrigeration, pallets of new cookware still in the box, box trucks, trailers, shipping containers and a collection of antiques.

Everything had to be gone by July 13.

The plan

A schedule was built backward from the deadline.

Multiple crews sorted, staged, cataloged and photographed every lot on site.

The auctions were staggered in the way that most efficiently completed the full liquidation within the deadline.

The result

The last auction closed four days ahead of the deadline. More than 1,200 lots sold, bidders placed more than 18,000 bids and the catalogs were viewed more than 90,000 times. A converted DART bus brought $11,000. Six Hobart 60 quart mixers sold for $1,000 to $1,975 each.

Upwards of 90% of the property was cleared through the auctions.