ORLANDO, FL, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE and TSX: RBA),
the world's largest on-site and online industrial auctioneer, conducted
the Company's first six-day auction from February 16 to 21, 2009 at the
Company's newly expanded, 200-acre permanent auction site in Orlando,
Florida. The unreserved public auction attracted more than 7,600 unique
registered bidders, both in-person and online, from 75 countries. More
than 8,300 lots were sold during the auction, generating US$184 million
in gross auction proceeds. The auction broke several Orlando site
records, including: the most bidder registrations; the most auction
lots sold; and the highest number of consignors (more than 550). The
auction also broke the Company-wide record for the most selling days in
a single auction.
"Adding another 35 developed acres to our Orlando facility allowed
us to sell a much larger and broader selection of items than we did
last year, which enabled us to add a sixth day to our auction sale,"
said Gary Seybold, Divisional Manager for Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers.
"With the additional land, we were able to add more auction lots to the
sale, which broadened the mix of equipment and offered a greater
selection of equipment across all categories to our buying customers."
Every Ritchie Bros. online bidding record was broken at the Orlando
auction last week, including: the most registered bidders; the most
buyers; the most items sold online; and the largest gross auction
proceeds generated online at any Ritchie Bros. auction. For the first
time ever, there were more than 3,400 concurrent users on the system -
the highest number of people watching and bidding online at the same
time in one Ritchie Bros. auction. More than 3,000 of the 7,600 bidders
registered to participate in the Orlando auction live and in real-time
over the internet, beating last year's record by more than 1,000 online
participants. Online bidders purchased more than US$36 million of
trucks and equipment and were winner or runner up bidder on 27% of the
lots available online. There were 550 unique internet buyers.
More than US$154 million (or 83%) was sold to buyers located outside
the state of Florida and more than US$61 million (or 34%) was sold to
buyers outside the United States.
"Prices at our Orlando unreserved auction were holding steady and
were generally above the prices we were seeing in Q4 of 2008," said
Peter Blake, CEO of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. "We feel there are a
number of reasons for this, including the fact that we saw a high
number of international buyers participating, as we always do at the
February Orlando auction. More than US$21 million of equipment was sold
to buyers in Central and South America, close to US$20 million of
equipment was sold to Canada, more than US$6 million was sold to
Mexico, and close to US$4 million was sold to the Middle East. Although
we were pleased with the values achieved at last week's auction, this
was just one auction and therefore, they aren't necessarily indicative
of a trend. Also, this auction had a much larger and more diverse mix
of equipment than we've seen in February auctions in Orlando in the
last few years, including more smaller lots, which had a meaningful
effect on the average value per lot for this auction."
Louis Merucci is co-owner of Gigliotti Contracting, Inc., a
well-known utility and roadbuilding contractor based on the west coast
of Florida in Palmetto. He and his business partner decided to downsize
and sold 100 pieces of their well-maintained equipment in the Orlando
Ritchie Bros. auction.
"After 30 years in business and with the economic slowdown we
decided it was the right time to downsize," said Mr. Merucci, age 62.
"Rather than let all this iron sit in our yard while our workload was
diminishing, we brought it to Ritchie Bros. to sell to the world
market. I was pleasantly surprised at where the prices were on auction
day and I really think we achieved those prices because of the
international crowd and due to the integrity of both my company and
Ritchie Bros."
At the Orlando auction, Ritchie Bros. rolled out its new online
shipping service to its customers, in partnership with uShip.com - the
world's largest online shipping marketplace. As of the end of last
week, there were in excess of 1,000 auction lots listed by Orlando
auction buyers on the new online shipping service. The average number
of bids received from transportation service providers through the
online shipping service so far is five per lot, and many bids came
within the first hour of a posting. The new service allows the
Company's on-site and online buyers to list their new purchases at any
auction and obtain competitive bids for transportation.
The Company also recently rolled out its latest online bidding
software release, which features more images for online bidders and a
multi-sale dashboard, allowing bidders to participate in more than one
Ritchie Bros. auction at the same time. For the first time ever at an
Orlando auction, the Company broadcast three simultaneous auction rings
to the internet bidding audience.
The Company is selling more than 38,350 truck and equipment items in
122 unreserved industrial and agricultural auctions scheduled on its
upcoming auction calendar, including the grand opening auction at the
Company's new Minneapolis, MN permanent auction site (March 19 and 20,
2009) and the grand opening auction at the Company's new Houston, TX
permanent auction site (March 25 to 27, 2009). The Company is also
holding its first auctions at new sites in Geelong (near Melbourne),
Australia (March 19, 2009) and Mexico City, Mexico (March 31, 2009). An
agricultural auction is also scheduled for the Company's new location
in London, ON, Canada (April 1, 2009).
About Ritchie Bros.
Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE and TSX: RBA)
is the world's largest industrial auctioneer, selling more equipment to
on-site and online bidders than any other company in the world. The
Company has over 110 locations in more than 25 countries including 38
auction sites worldwide. Ritchie Bros. sells, through unreserved public
auctions, a broad range of used and unused industrial assets, including
equipment, trucks and other assets utilized in the construction,
transportation, agricultural, material handling, mining, forestry,
petroleum and marine industries. The Company maintains a web site at www.rbauction.com and sponsors an equipment wiki at www.RitchieWiki.com.
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