Maynards Europe will oversee the initial stages in one of the most important regeneration projects in the UK from 2021 onwards.
Work is set to begin in January following the acquisition of the 100-acre Avlon Works pharmaceutical processing site in the heart of Avonmouth Severnside by the Vancouver-based Epta Development Corporation (EDC) in December.
Maynards, a global leader in industrial auctions and liquidations, is to manage the asset recovery and demolition of the former pharmaceutical plant. The project is so vast that the asset list runs to 144 pages and Maynards expects to put together a sales catalogue of more than 5,000 lots, to include “everything above ground”.
Once the site has been cleared, EDC propose creating a modern, master-planned warehousing and logistics park comprising c.1,850,000 square, a project that is set to be a major contributor to economic development, job creation and regeneration for the region centred on South Gloucestershire.
The Avlon Works were operational for 50 years from 1969 to 2019. In 2016 AstraZeneca sold the site to Avara Pharmaceutical in the hope of securing the operation’s future, but Avara fell into administration and the entire site was put up for sale.
“With the complete contents of the 100-acre facility for sale, Maynards is offering a unique opportunity to purchase complete pharmaceutical production lines or individual assets,” says UK Managing Director Daniel Gray. “The spares inventory alone is valued at more than £2.5 million, but add to that site support equipment, site infrastructure, offices, labs, warehouse equipment, workshops, data centres, building structures and much more, and it is easy to see just how substantial and significant this offer is.”
All the equipment has been professionally cleaned and purged, and Avara staff have been retained to assist in answering technical questions, providing data and assisting with sales and equipment removal from site. Full data sheets of the complete inventory are available to interested parties.
Among the equipment and facilities to be disposed of are:
- five Large-Scale cGMP API Plants, with 6-10m3 reactors, pressure filter, conical and centrifuge drying
- two Large-Scale Milling Facilities with Hosakawa mills
- cGMP Kilo Scale facility with 20-100L reactors
- four quality, two environmental, six chemistry and one analytical laboratories
- IMS Solvent Recovery Unit (Koch Modular Process)
- a biological wastewater treatment facility
- a combined heat and power plant
- extensive warehousing including cold storage
- offices, workshops, site services, facilities and internal transport throughout
“The Avonmouth site has long been a major national distribution hub for its products, and so is perfectly situated for effective asset disposal, with additional nearby port connections,” said Mr Gray.
Maynards Europe is part of the Maynards group of companies, a global enterprise launched in 1902 which pioneered the Industrial and Retail auction industry from the early 1950s. A formidable track record in asset disposal includes numerous blue-chip partnerships in the automotive, pharmaceutical, energy supply and other industries that have enabled the repurposing of highly specialised machinery and equipment.
One of the company’s main focuses has been the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently that has included the dispersal of the complete contents of Recipharm’s Ashton-under-Lyne pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. As with that project, Maynards Europe will work with logistics partners offering turnkey solutions to relocate and recommission equipment from the Avlon Works site globally.
