Edmonton region one of the world'slargest industrial auction centres

GORDON KENT

The rows ofbackhoes, bulldozers,trucks and graders that stretchalongkilometres of laneways makeRitchie Bros.'massive Nisku yardlook like a giant Tonka Toys park-

ing lot.The record-setting te0OO-plus

pieces assembled for the compa-ny's five-day sale this week lookimpressive, but also illustratesomething industry insiders haveknown,foryears - the Edmonton

region is one of the world's largestindustrial auction centres.

"This is equipmentcentral, sotospeak, so when people... are look-ing for used equipment, they knowovertime this is a hub," said BrianGlenn, Ritchie's senior vice-presi-dent for Western Canada.

The Vancouver-based compa-ny last year moved $73l-millionworth of equipment through its8o-hectare Nisku facility, up from

Potential bidders survey some of the heavy equipment assembled at Ritchie Bros.'Nisku yard for a record-setting five-day sale . "o

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Loffi#ff ('lffi acreery?tfri?,iffi frrce$569 million in2Ol4.

That gives the site about t4 percent ofthe firmt multibillion-dol-lar total sales.

While Orlando, Fla., typicallyhosts the world's largest auctionover several days each Februarymore machinery moves annu-ally through Nisku than any ofRitihie's other roughly 4O loca-tions.SEE AUCTION ON A6

Oil, gas gear has'accumulated'AUCTION FROI\,I .EI

"You look at the province ofAl-berta alone, the equipment PoPula-tion, regardless ofwhich industryyouire in, is probably greater thananywhere in the country," Glennsaid.

One key reason is that big Piecesare usually too expensive to shiPfar for sale.

Almost half the items purchasedfrom Ritchie Bros. in Edmontonlast year went to out-of-Provincecustomers and 13 per cent left thecountry, almost entirelY to Ameri-cans with their strong dollars.

Ritchie Bros. isn't the onlY firmcontributing to Edmonton's im-portance inthe international auc-tion industry.

Osman Auction Inc. moved lastDecember to a new $22-million,nine-hectare facility on 199 Street,adding an auction ringwith a state-of-the-art audio-visual sYstemand doors that roll oPen to showbidders each piece of equiPment

driving past, similar to the setuPat Ritchie Bros.

General manager Jeff SPillerexpects a record sale MaY 25, al-though he can't provide numbers.

What's good for the auction in-dustry doesn't necessarilY meangood things for the ailing Albertaeconomy.

"All the oil and gas equipmenthas just accumulated. Now, un-fortunately, a lot of it's being liq-uidated," Spiller said.

For example, "somebodY whoowned 20 graders because theYneeded it for their business nowonly needs six ... Everybody'sdownsizing."

Family-owned Michener AllenAuctioneering Ltd., which runs 13

sales a year from facilities in Cal-gary and in Acheson near Edmon-ton's western boundary, e:gPects tohandle $5O millionto $60 millionworth of industrial equipment thisyear.

I EdmontonhasalwaYsbeentheirbiggest location, co-owner Wade

Michener said.He said the local auction industry

creates jobs and a higher interna-tional profile for the region.

There's work "in transportationof equipment and clean uf, and...hotel rooms," he said.

"And the exposule the city gets

to the world, especially on the In-ternet - I think it's been put on themap."

The web accounts for a grow-ing percentage of auction sales.In 2015, about 55 per cent ofsalesfrom Ritchie Bros. Edmonton auc-tions, or $402 million, were madeonline, compared to 47 per cent

- $27o million - theyeaibefore.American online auction house

IronPlanet, which has sold $4 bil-lionworth of material since 2OOO,

held its first live auction in Edmon-tonlast fall after mergingwithCatAuction Services.

Its work includes marketing usedmachinery for Finning Interna-tional, the world's largest Cater-pillar dealer.

Still, manypeople like to come tosee the machinery for themselves,kick the tires; put the hYdraulicsthrough their paces and listen to anauctioneer's mesmerizing torrentof words before plunking down$l3Ogoo for a loader.

Some do inspections inthe daYs

before a sale or send an agent, thenbid from their offices or home,while others sit inthe plastic seatsand signal their int.erest by handor a nod.

They're attracted bY the chanceto find a deal, the oPPortunitY tonetwork or the chance to gather in-formation about the possible valueoftheir own fleets.

"You get to find out what's haP-pening. You get a feel for what theeconomy is like," said Edmonton'sBernie Briggs, who works in heavYequipment rentals.

"You can read what some Politi-cian said or your banker saYs, butthis is reality. This isn't theory'"gke nt @p o s tme diric oin' :

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