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. Ritchie Bros. sells, through unreserved public auctions, a broad range of used and unused equipment for the construction, transportation, agricultural, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum and marine industries. The company maintains a web site at rbauction.com and sponsors an equipment wiki at RitchieWiki.com.
ESTABLISHED: 1958 in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. First unreserved auction: 1958. First unreserved industrial auction: 1963.
LOCATIONS: Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Canada, Ritchie Bros. has over 110 locations worldwide, including 40 auction sites in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
EMPLOYEES: Ritchie Bros. has more than 1,100 full-time employees around the world.
MANAGEMENT: Ritchie Bros. is a public company. Its common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the trading symbol RBA. Robert Murdoch is the current Chairman of the Board; Peter Blake is the current CEO.
UNRESERVED AUCTIONS: Every Ritchie Bros. auction is unreserved. That means there are no minimum bids or reserve prices; every item is sold to the highest bidder on auction day, regardless of price. Ritchie Bros. also forbids owners from bidding on their own items, ensuring that bidders set the prices, not sellers.
2009 AUCTION RESULTS: Gross auction proceeds of US$3.5 billion; 327 unreserved industrial and agricultural auctions.
AVERAGE INDUSTRIAL AUCTION: US$17.3 million in gross auction proceeds; 1,450 lots from 190 consignors; 1,720 on-site and online bidders from around the world.
LARGEST AUCTION: Ritchie Bros. conducted the largest auction in company history at its permanent auction site in Orlando, Florida in February 2008. The five-day unreserved auction attracted 6,000 bidders from 71 countries and generated gross auction proceeds of US$190 million.
GLOBAL MARKETPLACE: The participation of on-site and online bidders from around the world at each Ritchie Bros. auction ensures that equipment is sold for its global fair market value – regardless of local market conditions. On average, over 1,700 bidders participate in each industrial auction. Larger auctions can attract hundreds, even thousands more.
INSPECTION: Equipment being sold is organized at the auction site weeks ahead of sale day. Prospective buyers are encouraged to come to the yard to test, inspect and compare the equipment to assess its value and condition before bidding.
THE RAMP AUCTION METHOD: At mostRitchie Bros. auctions, mobile equipment is driven over a ramp in front of the auction theater so the crowd can see each machine in operation as they bid.
RBAUCTION.COM: Millions of people visit rbauction.com every year to check the upcoming auction calendar, search for equipment, look up auction results from the past 24 months, find their local sales representative or auction site – and even place real-time bids at auctions worldwide.
ONLINE BIDDING: Most people prefer to bid in person at Ritchie Bros. auctions. If they can’t make it to the auction, they are able to bid online in real time at rbauction.com or by proxy. In 2009, 33% of the bidders at Ritchie Bros. auctions bid over the internet; online bidders purchased US$830 million of equipment. Close to 130,000 people from 194 countries are approved to bid online at Ritchie Bros. auctions.
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