Interview: Adam shares a slice of the Pye magic with auction success

Adam Pye

John Pye & Sons is one of the fastest growing businesses in the Midlands. Having just completed its best ever year with record-breaking figures, it has taken the industry in the UK by storm – selling everything online from formula 1 cars to fridge freezers. Sam Metcalf talks to Adam Pye, its managing director.

We’re in Bond Street, London, in Adam Pye’s office. It’s Downton Abbey-style chic with two large leather Chesterfield sofas, a large leather covered mahogany desk, oil paintings on the wall and a large mirror which belies these sumptuous surroundings. Yet at the flick of a switch, the relics of times gone by are left behind, the gold framed mirror turns into a computer screen and this is where the Pye magic begins.

This wallpapered and carpeted office, says Adam, is a ‘haven’ from the clean lines and modernity of the auction space next door – with its polished glass cases enclosing precious gem stones like boiled sweets glinting in the light.

Right here at the Mayfair base of John Pye, it’s clear to see a distinction between the contemporary and the traditional. The modern, and the traditional – this is a perfect metaphor for John Pye & Sons: the business has combined its six decades of auction experience with the latest technology – to sell millions of pounds of products and property online every year.

The business was created by Adam’s parents, John & Ann Pye, in 1968. An ex-miner, John took redundancy from Langley Mill pit and started up in the auction world with his old pit pony and a cart. His business started with house clearances that no-one else would touch – and he soon became no stranger to the local auction market.

John Pye had initially cleared out enough properties to amass sufficient saleables for his first auction. He rented some space at Nottingham’s old Cattle Market in Meadow Lane, where he saw his first hammer fall.

John Pye Auctions in Port Talbot

John Pye Auctions in Port Talbot

John and his wife Ann today still own the business, which has grown from one trading site to 22 across the UK. John has enjoyed a working lifetime both at the rostrum and on the road providing valuations for fine art, antiques and even livestock.

Flashback to 50 years ago and second generation-owned John Pye Auctions started trading when John Pye began probate property clearances that no other auctioneers in Nottingham wanted.

Since then, the business has turned into the UK’s largest commercial auction house. It now operates at sites including Nottingham, Derby, Marchington, Birmingham, Sheffield, London, Scotland and Wales.

The company works with major UK high-street retailers including the likes of John Lewis, insolvency practitioners, banks, lenders, government agencies and agents, selling assets and stock through five trading departments: John Pye Retail, John Pye Luxury Assets, John Pye Property, John Pye Business Assets and John Pye Vehicles.

From day one, John Pye & Sons grew organically and substantially, acquiring the old Shipstone’s ‘Star’ brewery in the mid 90s for the company’s head office, securing many of the UK’s biggest Government disposals contracts, acting on behalf of the UK’s main banks, finance houses and retail plcs, sponsoring Nottingham Forest Football Club and launching John Pye Property Auctions.

And here we are today in Bond Street – which seems light years away from those humble beginnings in the Cattle Market in Nottingham. It’s clear the business has moved quickly – and has used the best technology to stay ahead of its competitors.
Meanwhile at the Nottingham site, fridge freezers are standing like white monuments against a back wall. There are perfect lines of white goods – and not a tumble dryer or washing machine is out of place like a plastic homage to the Terracotta Army. A couple are peering into their round windows, looking at the make and model – and figuring out just how much they will be bidding later online.

Last year was the busiest year yet for John Pye Auctions as the company reached record sales and saw staff numbers soar to more than 260.

“We were the first auction house in the UK to trial the online model with Property. All the other auction houses laughed at us but the model worked online and we grew it,” said Adam. “We have grasped technology where others have feared it and an average week sees us get more than 125,000 hits on the website.

“Now we are being approached by sellers and buyers from all around the world, we are not UK client based anymore and there’s no reason not to go global. Ultimately, we are filling a niche in the marketplace and our adaptability is what will see us thrive in decades to come.”

John Pye Auctions may be an online business but its staff are the bread and butter behind ensuring a smooth experience for its customers. Well planned logistics in receiving stock deliveries, managing the online bidding process, and then ensuring it is picked up the next day by buyers, saw it shift more than 1.5 million items in 2016 including 5,758 sofas, 28,873 televisions and 21,994 cars plus a whole range of other items from technology through to teapots.

Adam said: “We have a policy of promoting from within. We employ generations of staff, working with friends and family. That is key to our business model as we are truly a family business to our core. And we have great staff benefits and share a portion of our profits with our workforce.

“Myself and the rest of the dedicated John Pye Auctions team are excited and inspired by what the next phase of the business will bring.

“This has been a fantastic 12 months for the business. We are celebrating the first full year of trading at our London showroom in Mayfair for the Luxury Assets division, we have opened a new facility in South Wales (which is the largest indoor auction hub in Europe with 300,000 sq ft of auction space), and we have won several national and regional awards including Family Business of the Year and Auctioneer of the Year, collecting the prize in Park Lane last autumn.

“We continue to see an increasing demand for the services we offer and the way we conduct our auctions. How people shop is changing and the number of consumers who choose to purchase products through an online auction is growing year on year.

“John Pye Auctions is in a period of rapid expansion which is part of our ambitious growth strategy and this will continue into 2017 and beyond. The new South Wales site is a priority as we aim to increase footfall on public viewing dates, raise brand awareness, increase stock levels, open more salerooms and employ additional staff.”

The property side of the business has gone from strength. The big London-based property firms scoffed when John Pye began to sell commercial and residential property on line. From quarterly auctions, the sector has grown significantly since its inception – and now there are monthly sales.

Adam: “Those property firms who couldn’t believe it could be done are now seeing our success. We recently celebrated our second year we have increased the frequency of our online property auctions creating greater opportunities to acquire property through the online auction process.”

Adam Pye picking up the Midlands Family Business of the Year award in 2016

Adam Pye picking up the Midlands Family Business of the Year award in 2016

Recently, John Pye Property saw one of its biggest successes yet – when a bidding frenzy saw more than 250 bids from online buyers looking to purchase the iconic grade II listed Trafford Park Hotel in Manchester.

The bidding war went on for almost two hours after the auction officially closed and saw the hotel fetch nearly three times the listed guide price. Originally listed for £350,000, the property eventually sold for just shy of £900,000.
“It was a record lot,” said Adam “This property certainly attracted a lot of attention as we were inundated with around 150 enquiries.”

Auctions have evolved a lot from the dingy taverns of the 17th Century where they used to be held in to the living rooms of bidders in the 21st Century, but Pye believe it will always be at the forefront and one step ahead of the pack in keeping the magic of auctions alive.

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