A Record Breaking Year

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc., the world’s largest auctioneer of industrial equipment, sold approximately $3.9 billion of equipment at 328 unreserved auctions around the world in 2012. This represents a 5 percent increase in gross auction proceeds over 2011 and the highest gross auction proceeds in company history. The company achieved gross auction proceeds of $1 billion in the fourth quarter alone.

Ritchie Bros. attracted record online bidder registrations and sold approximately $1.3 billion of equipment, trucks and other assets to online bidders in 2012, an 18 percent increase over 2011 and the highest amount ever sold online by the company in one year.

Ritchie Bros. conducted its final unreserved auctions of the year on Dec. 20, 2012, in Los Angeles and St. Louis and plans to release its full audited annual financial statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis for 2012 on Feb. 26. All dollar amounts are stated in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

“Against the backdrop of market turbulence through the year, we are pleased with our 2012 results as we emerged well positioned to continue the growth of our core unreserved auction business and we are ready to begin a new path that will introduce a new customer base to our brand,” said Peter Blake, Ritchie Bros. CEO. “In 2012, we saw the intense competition for quality, low-hour used equipment recently transition to a less competitive and more familiar environment for our business to grow over the long term.

“These changes in the evolving equipment market contributed to our performance in the year where we saw significant gains in our online presence and bidder portal, with over 5 million unique visitors to our 21 language website and $1.3 billion in annual online equipment sales,” he continued. “Our auctions in Canada recorded over $1 billion in gross auction proceeds for the year, an amazing feat from our network of 10 permanent auction sites within Canada.”

The World’s Largest Heavy Equipment Auction: Orlando, Fla.

Ritchie Bros. held the world’s largest heavy equipment auction in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 13 to 18, 2012, and, in the process, broke multiple company records. New records were set for gross auction proceeds ($203 million), number of lots sold (more than 10,000), total number of registered bidders (8,670), number of sellers (830), online gross auction proceeds (more than $47 million) and number of online bidders (4,070).