Ritchie Bros opens permanent auction site in France

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers officially opened its new French auction site at a ceremony on 27 June. The 20-hectare facility is at Saint Aubin sur Gaillon, west of Paris, strategically located alongside the A13 motorway and just 100 km from the port of Le Havre.

Ritchie, which is based in Canada, now has 38 auction sites worldwide. The €25 million investment in the French site - which is close to the temporary location where Ritchie has already held six auctions since May 2006 - is part of the company's growth strategy for Europe.

Within two years the company plans to have permanent auction sites in Spain and Italy to add to the current sites in France and the Netherlands. The company will open a site at Livorno, Italy, in late 2009 and the Spanish location should be complete in two years.

Robert Murdoch, chairman of the board at Ritchie Bros, said at the opening that the new French site would increase the capacity to 17000 auction lots from 1000, with the 150000 m2 storage space sufficient to hold up to 3500 machines. He also said that it was likely that another permanent auction site would be opening in the south of France.