At its recent Orlando, FL auction, Ritchie Bros. sold more than 12,000 equipment items and trucks, reaching $278 million in sales, making it Ritchie Bros.’ largest auction ever in its 60-year history.

More than 13,350 bidders from 90 countries registered to participate in the Orlando auction (February 19 – 24, 2018), including 8,600 online bidders who purchased more than $123 million (44%) of the equipment. U.S. bidders purchased approximately 80% of the equipment in the auction, while international bidders from such countries as Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Australia and China purchased 20% of the equipment.

“We created history last week, with a record US$278+ million auction, which was a 24% increase compared to the combined Ritchie Bros. and IronPlanet GTV from last year — a monumental event for the used heavy equipment and transportation sectors,” said Ravi Saligram, CEO of Ritchie Bros. “We consider this to be a barometer of both end user demand as well as superb execution of our sales, marketing and operations teams. Despite continued tightness of supply, which we expect to persist, our teams leveraged existing customer relationships and penetrated new accounts. The auction results showcase the potential power of the Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers and IronPlanet combination and that the innovations we implemented in Orlando significantly enhanced the customer experience for sellers and buyers. I would like to thank our customers for their enduring trust and our employees who made this auction a tremendous success.”

Jeff Jeter, president of U.S. Sales for Ritchie Bros., added, “We are pleased with the execution of our sales team and encouraged by the strong price performance throughout the week through most equipment categories and sectors, continuing the trend we’ve seen in our events early this year, including our auctions in Phoenix, Houston and Tipton, as well as our weekly online auctions through IronPlanet. We sold 12% more lots this year compared to the combined Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers and IronPlanet Orlando auctions last February and saw a price per lot increase of 11%.”

For select items, Ritchie Bros. offered a virtual consignment option to sell off-site items with IronClad Assurance, integrating those items with the rest of the assets located in Orlando.