In October 2020, the Japanese car manufacturer Honda appointed Gordon Brothers to support the restructuring of its global automobile manufacturing operations, which included the end of the Civic Hatchback model’s current cycle and closure of Honda of the U.K. Manufacturing Ltd’s plant in Swindon, England.

After an extensive selection process, Honda’s management team selected Gordon Brothers as the exclusive asset selling agent and official valuation firm for the Swindon plant, which, at its peak, manufactured approximately 250,000 cars per year.

The 370-acre automotive manufacturing and assembly plant ceased production and permanently closed in July 2021. The sale was time sensitive as Honda had sold the real estate and all the assets had to be sold and removed from the plant by April 2022.

As part of the 18-month project, our firm took 28,000 photos of the machinery and equipment and created over 5,000 catalogued lots to provide a comprehensive overview of the assets for those unable to travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As one of the largest private treaty sales ever conducted in Europe, we managed the plant’s 10-month sale through an integrated global marketing campaign and targeted asset-specific industries and geographic areas where demand was high. Additionally, we built a dedicated marketing website to host 16 staged auctions for more than 5,000 machines that attracted a global audience of prospective buyers.

In September 2021, we sold the U.K. Honda facility and assets in their entirety to a single buyer in Turkey, which doubled the expected income.

We leveraged our existing partnership with Honda and harnessed our specialist asset knowledge, experience in the automotive sector, and global network and database to value, market and sell the manufacturing facility and machinery and equipment on schedule.