Ritchie Brothers Auction to take place in Grande Prairie next week

GRANDE PRAIRIE, A.B. — From the file of ‘one man’s pain is another man’s gain’: Next week, the downturn in the oil and gas industry will fuel what could arguably be the biggest ever unreserved auction in Peace Country history.

The start time both sale days — Monday, March 14 and Tuesday, March 15 — will be 8 a.m.

Headquartered in Burnaby, Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers now has 110 locations in 25 different countries, and is billed as the world’s largest auctioneer.

The company is now nearly three years removed from the 50th anniversary of its first major unreserved industrial auction in Radium Hot Springs, back in June, 1963.

By 1985, it had sold equipment for more than $1 billion U.S., and it then took it, only three more years to do it again. By 1998, the year the company went public, it posted another first, as its annual gross auction proceeds, exceeded, $1 billion U.S.

Today, the company has 44 auction sites in 13 different countries including the one at Range Road 51 on the south side of Highway 43 — east of Grande Prairie. At this location, the auction will be hosted.

On offer will be more than 2,250 items, including more than 65 excavators, more than 60 dozers, and hundreds of trucks and trailers.

However, Vice-President Simon Wallan is quoted as saying, “It’s the quality, not the quantity of the equipment on offer, that’s most impressive.”

The advance sale notices confirm, there will be three complete dispersals, including more than 350 items for Pinnacle Services, the oil and gas industry service company in High Level, which claims its equipment is ‘well-maintained and ready to go to work for a new owner.’