About

CaterBidsUK

The UK Marketplace for Catering Equipment

Built by someone who used to fit these kitchens out

My name’s Colt. I’ve been in commercial kitchens since I was fourteen.

I started out manufacturing and installing extraction systems across the UK. Canopies, ductwork, all the ventilation. Then the rest of it: stainless steel and hygienic wall cladding, sinks, prep tables, shelving. If it went into a commercial kitchen, I’ve fitted it.

Big chains, independent takeaways, restaurants, pubs. The names on the front change, the kitchens behind them don’t.

Later I qualified on the servicing side, repairing commercial catering equipment and catering trailers, and went Gas Safe on both domestic and commercial, including LPG on mobile units. Somewhere in the middle of all that I was fabricating and installing structural steel in the car plants.

Twenty five years, and most of it spent either putting this kit in or taking it out.

So when a fryer turns up on this site with no service history and a hopeful price on it, I know what it’s worth, what the buyer is going to ask, and what it’ll cost them to get it in through the door.

This is the second time I’ve built CaterBids

The first was 2010. Same idea: a proper UK marketplace for catering equipment, instead of chancing it on the general classifieds. Personal circumstances ended it in 2011 and I let it go.

I came back to it because I ran my own gas engineering business in Birmingham. Servicing and repairing catering equipment, catering trailers, boilers and cookers. We were manufacturer-trained on cooker repairs and held a manufacturer’s repair contract for Birmingham.

Then Covid hit. I was getting back on my feet when my van was stolen with every tool I owned inside it. That finished me off.

That’s the thing about this trade. Your livelihood is the kit. When it goes, so does the work.

I spent the next fifteen months teaching myself to build software, because the only thing left that nobody could take off me was my time. CaterBids is what I built with it.

Why it works the way it does

Every other route for selling used catering equipment takes a cut of your sale. Auction houses take commission. Marketplaces take a final value fee. Dealers buy cheap and sell on at a multiple, which is the whole dealer business model and there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s your money.

The people selling this kit are usually having a rough year. Closing down, downsizing, replacing something that died. Taking a percentage off someone at that point never sat right with me.

So CaterBids doesn’t. You list your own kit, set your own price, and buyers come to you directly. Your first listing is free during our launch offer (one per account, first 100 listings only), then from £5 for 30 days. No commission and no final value fee. Whatever you agree with the buyer, you keep.

We cover new and used commercial catering equipment, catering vans, trailers and catering businesses, across the UK.

What I’m still building

It’s in beta and I’m one person. Some of it’s rough. If something’s broken or awkward, tell me and I’ll fix it, usually the same week. That’s not a support policy, that’s just how it works when there’s one of you.

If you’re selling

Two things I’d tell you as an engineer rather than as the bloke who runs the site.

Get the certificate. A current gas safety or electrical certificate, in date and written in the listing text rather than buried in a photo, is the single biggest difference between a listing that sells and one that sits. It costs less than the price drop you’ll take without it.

And be honest about the wear. Buyers in this trade expect a used machine to look used. What kills a sale is the thing they find on the day that wasn’t in the pictures.