John Pye & Sons Ltd was founded in 1968 by John and Ann Pye, originally as a partnership trading for many years under the title of ‘Furniture & General Auctions’ from Nottingham’s old Cattle Market site.
For over 20 years the business principally managed instructions for probate house clearances; cessation of business asset disposals and private chattels.
In December 1990 the business was incorporated as ‘John Pye & Sons Limited’ on the Companies House register. In the same year it moved to larger premises at Banton House, Meadow Lane, near Notts County Football ground as the business expanded its client portfolio throughout the East Midlands to encompass insolvency practitioners and industrial machinery valuations and auctions.
As this stream of business grew throughout the ‘90s UK recession period, John Pye & Sons required more space. In 1995 we acquired the old Shipstone’s ‘Star’ Brewery site; an iconic 7 acre industrial site in Nottingham. This was a significant long term capital investment for the family business, at the time employing no more than 20 full time staff but it provided John Pye & Sons with a site to grow into.
At that time John Pye & Sons was a regional auction house operating from one site, very much akin to most provincial auction houses. Traditionally the UK auction market has been very fragmented, occupied by family businesses with senior vocational Auctioneers at the helm with limited succession planning and fairly slow to grasp new technology opportunities.
When people have historically thought of auction houses they have thought of the well-known high end auction houses at one end of the spectrum and small family run auction houses at the other end. John Pye & Sons are neither, positioned in the middle vacuum of the market that has existed, alongside other provincial auction houses. Historically there has been no brand leader in the market for large stock disposals.
Sensing an opportunity in a fragmented niche, low profile and misunderstood yet potentially significant market, John Pye & Sons in 2003 set out on a strategic development programme to establish itself as the UK’s leading brand name synonymous with the general public purchasing everyday items (stock & assets) at auction for potentially bargain prices.
In 2003 we began to engage with Retail PLCs to provide a pipeline of more everyday common stock auction offerings; such as electronics, and home and garden stock. This has grown substantially to now incorporate over 60% of UK Retail PLCs and other Partnerships within John Pye & Sons’ client portfolio.
As we have organically grown the business we have strived to engage with new asset and stock market sectors to widen both client and buyer bases to ensure we are not reliant on one market type and therefore, left over exposed by market movements.
We are primarily a B2B business for sellers/vendors of stock and assets and a B2B and B2C business for buyers of stock and assets. There has been a significant shift from B2B to B2C buyers over the last five years as we have transitioned auction operations from live traditional auctions to online auctions.
In 2013 we launched John Pye Property, in response to market requests for bolt-on property services for Insolvency Practitioners.
John Pye Property was established to service a growing market need for owners and agents to reach end user property purchasers through a wider and more transparent gateway to market.
